Kaiser Gypsum

Kaiser Gypsum Company was a maker of gypsum wallboard products that, by its own account, made asbestos-containing joint compounds, texture paints and ceiling board from 1952 to the mid-1970s at plants in California, Oregon, Washington, Florida and New Jersey. Union Carbide supplied it with Calidria asbestos. After decades of lawsuits over its joint compound, Kaiser Gypsum filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2016.

Draft. The history on this page was written from the documents in our library and has not yet been reviewed by a person.

History

In 1992 Kaiser Gypsum described itself as a Washington corporation with its main office in Walnut Creek, California.⁷ Letters to the company in the 1970s address it at 300 Lakeside Drive in Oakland, California.⁸⁹ The company said it had made no products and made no sales in the United States since 1978, and that all of its manufacturing plants had been sold to unrelated companies.¹⁰ It said it had belonged to the Gypsum Association, a trade group of gypsum makers, from about 1955 to 1978.¹¹

The 1992 answers give the plants and years for each product. Kaiser Gypsum made texture paints and joint compound at Redwood City, California, from 1952 to 1957, then at Antioch, California, from 1957 into the mid-1970s.¹² Premixed compounds were made at Long Beach, California, from 1959 to 1962.¹² Plants at Santa Ana, California; Seattle, Washington; Jacksonville, Florida; and Delanco, New Jersey, made joint compounds and textures from the late 1960s until 1975.¹²¹³ The company's mineral fiberboard ceiling tile and lay-in board was made at St. Helens, Oregon, from 1963 to 1974.¹⁴ Our library also holds a label for its Null-A-Fire gypsum board, whose trademark file gives first use in October 1953; neither the label nor the 1992 answers say the board contained asbestos.¹⁵

Asbestos products

Kaiser Gypsum's answers list more than twenty products that contained asbestos. Among them were the Cover-Tex, Spray-Tex, Spray Cover-Tex and Kaiser-Tex texture paints; powder and premixed joint, finishing and topping compounds; a wallboard laminating compound; compounds for electric radiant-heat ceilings; and exterior wallboard compounds.¹ The company said the asbestos it used was chrysotile.¹⁶ It gave ranges of 6.5 to 10 per cent chrysotile for laminating compound and 6.5 to 16 per cent for joint compound, depending on the year and the plant's formula.¹⁶¹⁷ It said Cover-Tex texture paint, with asbestos, was "apparently" placed on the market beginning in 1952, and Spray-Tex in 1956.¹⁸¹⁹ An exterior premix prefill compound it placed on the market in 1975 contained 1.5 per cent chrysotile.²⁰

The company gave different dates for ending asbestos in different products: 1972 for laminating compound and 1975 for joint compound.¹⁷ For its One Day joint compound powder, the answers give two reasons on the same page: the asbestos version was discontinued in 1975 because of "the development of an asbestos-free formulation," and asbestos was removed in 1975 because of "increasing environmental and workplace health concerns and regulations."²¹ In Casey v. Kaiser Gypsum Co. (Cal. Ct. App. 2016), the opinion records that the first jury was told Kaiser Gypsum's sales of asbestos joint compound ended in 1975, while the second jury heard evidence that they ran through 1978.²²

Union Carbide and its asbestos

Kaiser Gypsum is listed among the customers on a Union Carbide asbestos sales sheet for August 1966.²³ Union Carbide's 1969 business plan for Calidria listed "Kaiser Gypsum (4 plants)" first among the major tape joint compound accounts its salesmen were to pursue.²⁴ In January 1971 a Union Carbide representative called on the plant superintendent of Kaiser Gypsum's Jacksonville, Florida, plant about using Calidria SG-210 to fix a color problem in its ready-mix joint compound.²⁵ In July 1975 Harrisons & Crosfield (Pacific), one of Union Carbide's Calidria distributors, offered Kaiser Gypsum a supply agreement for a minimum of 60 tons of Calidria SG-210.²⁶⁵ In later lawsuits Union Carbide answered that its sales records showed sales to Kaiser Gypsum at Antioch from 1970 through 1976.⁵ A Washington appeals court wrote in 2022 that Kaiser's joint compound in the 1960s and early 1970s contained Grade 7 chrysotile and Calidria chrysotile.²⁷

On December 27, 1971, Kaiser Gypsum's commodity purchasing manager, R. W. Grigg, wrote to Union Carbide asking about the health hazard of the SG-210 fiber the company bought and of Canadian grades it might buy. He asked what precautions to take in Kaiser's plants and what precautions "should be recommended to the contractors and workmen who use and apply our products containing asbestos fibers."⁴ Kaiser Gypsum's 1992 answers list December 27, 1971, letters from Kaiser Gypsum to Carey-Canadian Mines, Union Carbide, Western Chemical and Pacific Asbestos, and their replies.²⁸

John L. Myers, a Union Carbide marketing manager, answered on February 4, 1972. He wrote that SG-210 was chrysotile asbestos, the same as the Canadian grades Grigg had asked about, with the same biological effects. He described the new OSHA limits, advised respirators during dry blending unless dust counts were low, and wrote that the handling of pastes containing asbestos "should present no problem."⁸²⁹ He closed by thanking Kaiser for its use of SG-210 and saying Kaiser should need 30 to 50 per cent less of it than of Canadian asbestos.³⁰ In a 2002 lawsuit, Union Carbide denied requests that it admit it had told Kaiser Gypsum its fiber was safer than other asbestos.³¹

What the documents show

Kaiser Gypsum's own account. Asked when it first learned that asbestos could cause lung cancer, Kaiser Gypsum answered that in 1965 it "became aware of newspaper accounts that some physicians suggested a link between exposure to asbestos fibers and lung cancer." For mesothelioma it answered "Unknown after reasonable inquiry."³²³³ It said that beginning in 1972, in response to federal and state OSHA rules, it put a caution label on all containers of its asbestos products.³⁴ The label read: "CAUTION CONTAINS ASBESTOS FIBERS Avoid Creating Dust Breathing Asbestos Dust May Cause Serious Bodily Harm."³⁵ Among its health papers it listed minutes of the Gypsum Association's board for October 27, 1971, and a memo by R. C. Crowle. Its answers date the Crowle memo November 4, 1972, in one place and November 4, 1971, in another.²⁸³⁶

Industry meetings. Kaiser Gypsum sent a representative to a Gypsum Association safety committee meeting in September 1967. There a member noted reported lung cancer cases among residents near an asbestos plant and a lawsuit against the maker.³⁷ Kaiser Gypsum's technical director attended a Johns-Manville "Asbestos & Health" meeting for customers in San Francisco in December 1973.³⁸

What the courts recorded. In Casey, the Court of Appeal summarized the evidence the plaintiffs presented. It said the Gypsum Association sent Kaiser Gypsum reports on asbestos and mesothelioma in 1965, and that the company's safety officer, Leonard Flicker, passed them to top officials on March 1, 1965, and recommended respirators for its workers. The court wrote that the evidence showed Kaiser Gypsum "knew that asbestos dust was hazardous" in the mid-1960s, protected its own employees, and did not warn its customers.³⁹ The court upheld the judgment, including punitive damages that the trial court had reduced from $20 million to just under $4 million.²² Courts did not always rule against the company. In Silvestro v. Kaiser Gypsum Co. (Cal. Ct. App. 2009), the court upheld the jury's finding on causation but set aside its finding that Kaiser Gypsum bore 30 per cent of the fault. It held that the allocation lacked a sufficient evidentiary basis, noting the plaintiffs' expert testimony that the amosite from shipboard work was far more potent than the chrysotile in Kaiser's joint compound.⁴⁰ In McGonnell v. Kaiser Gypsum Co. (Cal. Ct. App. 2002), the court upheld summary judgment for Kaiser Gypsum and Kaiser Cement for lack of evidence of exposure to their products.⁴¹

Bankruptcy and later lawsuits

In 2017 a federal court in Maryland noted that Kaiser Gypsum had filed a suggestion of bankruptcy.⁴² Later court decisions cite the case as In re Kaiser Gypsum Co., No. 16-31602 (Bankr. W.D.N.C. 2016).⁶ In a 2021 decision in another case, that bankruptcy court wrote that the Kaiser Gypsum debtors, unlike most asbestos debtors, had insurance to pay asbestos claims, and that the stay on lawsuits against them was lifted only after the parties agreed on the terms of a plan.⁴³ Its parent company, Hanson Permanente Cement, filed for bankruptcy with it. In 2024, in Truck Insurance Exchange v. Kaiser Gypsum Co., the U.S. Supreme Court held that an insurer that must pay claims in a bankruptcy may object to the reorganization plan.

Lawsuits against Kaiser Gypsum continued in the courts during and after the bankruptcy. In Budd v. Kaiser Gypsum Co. (Wash. Ct. App. 2022), the court affirmed a jury verdict of about $13.4 million.²⁷ In Seen v. Kaiser Gypsum Co. (N.Y. App. Div. 2024), the court upheld a verdict finding Kaiser Gypsum 70 per cent at fault, but found the $15 million award excessive and ordered a new damages trial unless the plaintiff accepted $10 million.⁴⁴ No Kaiser Gypsum trust appears on our list of asbestos trusts.⁴⁵

References

1. Kaiser Gypsum's Amended Responses to Plaintiffs' Master Interrogatories in Dallas County (1992), pp. 11–12
2. Kaiser Gypsum's Amended Responses (1992), pp. 45–47
3. Asbestos; Publication of Identifying Information (1990), p. 10
4. UC-5416: R. W. Grigg (Kaiser Gypsum) to Walter J. Fitzpatrick on Health Hazards and Precautions for Asbestos Fiber Purchases (1971), pp. 1–2
5. UC-5325: Union Carbide Corporation's Responses to Plaintiffs' Standard Interrogatories, Complex Asbestos Litigation, San Francisco Superior Court (1986), p. 10
6. In re Bestwall LLC (Bankr. W.D.N.C. 2019)
7. Kaiser Gypsum's Amended Responses (1992), p. 10
8. UC-4492: John L. Myers to R. W. Grigg (Kaiser Gypsum) Answering Questions on Asbestos Toxicology and Regulations (1972), p. 1
9. UC-5256: Harrisons & Crosfield (Pacific) Calidria SG-210 Supply Agreement Letters (1975), p. 9
10. Kaiser Gypsum's Amended Responses (1992), p. 3
11. Kaiser Gypsum's Amended Responses (1992), p. 44
12. Kaiser Gypsum's Amended Responses (1992), pp. 45–46
13. Kaiser Gypsum's Amended Responses (1992), p. 47
14. Kaiser Gypsum Company, Inc. plant at St. Helens, Oregon
15. Label: Null-A-Fire gypsum board 5/8" x 4'' x 8'' (Kaiser Gypsum Company, Inc.)
16. Kaiser Gypsum's Amended Responses (1992), p. 13
17. Kaiser Gypsum's Amended Responses (1992), p. 14
18. Kaiser Gypsum's Amended Responses (1992), p. 15
19. Kaiser Gypsum's Amended Responses (1992), p. 16
20. Kaiser Gypsum's Amended Responses (1992), p. 28
21. Kaiser Gypsum's Amended Responses (1992), p. 20
22. Casey v. Kaiser Gypsum Co. (Cal. Ct. App. 2016)
23. UC-432: Chemplast Development Market Manager Detail Sheets: Asbestos Sales by Customer, August (1966)
24. UC-811: F. D. Dexter to J. Clayton Stephenson Transmitting Calidria Asbestos Discussion Outline and 1969 Business Plan (1969), pp. 12–13
25. UC-669: H. B. Rhodes Report of Call to Kaiser Gypsum Corp. (Jacksonville, Fla.) (1971), p. 1
26. UC-5256, pp. 9–10
27. Budd v. Kaiser Gypsum Co. (Wash. Ct. App. 2022)
28. Kaiser Gypsum's Amended Responses (1992), p. 39
29. UC-4492, pp. 2–3
30. UC-4492, p. 4
31. UC-5434: Union Carbide's Objections and Responses to Plaintiffs' Requests for Admission (Set No. 1), Von Raeder v. Crown Cork and Seal (2002), p. 58
32. Kaiser Gypsum's Amended Responses (1992), p. 50
33. Kaiser Gypsum's Amended Responses (1992), p. 52
34. Kaiser Gypsum's Amended Responses (1992), p. 40
35. Kaiser Gypsum's Amended Responses (1992), p. 41
36. Kaiser Gypsum's Amended Responses (1992), p. 43
37. UC-5490: Gypsum Association Safety Committee Meeting Minutes, Saddle Brook, New Jersey (1967), pp. 1–2
38. AIA-112: Johns-Manville Corporation, A Condensation of Environmental Facts on Asbestos and Health, with Customer Seminar Attendee Lists (1974), p. 37
39. Casey v. Kaiser Gypsum Co. (Cal. Ct. App. 2016), the court's opinion
40. Silvestro v. Kaiser Gypsum Co. (Cal. Ct. App. 2009)
41. McGonnell v. Kaiser Gypsum Co. (Cal. Ct. App. 2002)
42. Rockman v. Union Carbide Corp. (D. Md. 2017)
43. In re DBMP LLC (Bankr. W.D.N.C. 2021)
44. Seen v. Kaiser Gypsum Co. (N.Y. App. Div. 2024)
45. Asbestos trusts A–Z

People

People the documents tie to Kaiser Gypsum, most often named first, with the titles the documents give them.

• Ralph Grigg: Commodity Purchasing Manager unreviewed

Asbestos products

1 product our documents name Kaiser Gypsum as making or selling. Each product's page says what the documents say about it, including its asbestos content.

• Null-A-Fire (Kaiser Gypsum)

Plants

Plants where asbestos products were made that the documents say Kaiser Gypsum ran.

• Kaiser Gypsum Company, Inc. plant at Antioch, California
• Kaiser Gypsum Company, Inc. plant at Delanco, New Jersey
• Kaiser Gypsum Company, Inc. plant at Jacksonville, Florida
• Kaiser Gypsum Company, Inc. plant at Long Beach, California
• Kaiser Gypsum Company, Inc. plant at Redwood City, California
• Kaiser Gypsum Company, Inc. plant at Santa Ana, California
• Kaiser Gypsum Company, Inc. plant at Seattle, Washington
• Kaiser Gypsum Company, Inc. plant at St. Helens, Oregon

Court cases

37 court decisions in our case-law library name Kaiser Gypsum as a defendant, newest first.

• Sarjeant v. Foster Wheeler LLC (2024)
• Brooks v. Mission Stucco Company (2024)
• Seen v. Kaiser Gypsum Co. (Matter of New York City Asbestos Litigation, 2024)
• Seen v. Kaiser Gypsum Co., Inc. (2023)
• Miller v. Agripac, Inc. (2022)
• Budd v. Kaiser Gypsum Company, Inc. (2022)
• Hoff v. Certainteed Corp. (2021)
• Roy v. Colgate Palmolive Co. (2021)
• Lanza v. Kaiser Gypsum Co. (Matter of Nyc Asbestos Litig, 2020)
• Montell v. Kaiser Gypsum Co. (In re New York City Asbestos Litigation, 2020)
• Salzano v. Kaiser Gypsum Co. (In re New York City Asbestos Litigation, 2020)
• Gladyszewski v. Whittaker, Clark & Daniels (In re New York City Asbestos Litigation, 2019)
• Godfrey v. Kaiser Gypsum Co. (In re New York City Asbestos Litigation, 2019)
• Rockman v. Union Carbide Corp. (2017)
• Cicio v. American Biltrite (Matter of New York City Asbestos Litig., 2016)
• Casey v. Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc. (2016)
• Herbert v. American Biltrite (2016)
• Hernandezcueva v. EF Brady Company, Inc. (2015)
• Konstantin v. 640 Third Ave. Assoc. (2014)
• Konstantin v. 640 Third Ave. Assoc. (2014)
• Izell v. Union Carbide Corporation (2014)
• Izell v. Union Carbide Corp. (2014)
• Izell v. Union Carbide Corporation (2014)
• Konstantin v. Tishman Liquidating Corp. (Matter of New York City Asbestos Litig., 2014)
• Collin v. Calportland Company (2014)
• Lovelace v. Elementis Chemicals, Inc. (2014)
• Joyner v. AC & R. Insulation Co. (2013)
• Nelson v. Air and Liquid Systems Corp. (2013)
• Rich v. Kaiser Gypsum Company, Inc. (2012)
• Konstantin v. 630 Third Ave. Assoc. (2012)
• Saffold v. Bondex International, Inc. (2011)
• Horn v. A.W. Chesterson Co. (In re Matter of New York City Asbestos Litig., 2010)
• Asbury v. AW Chesterton Company (2010)
• Silvestro v. Kaiser Gypsum Company, Inc. (2009)
• Plympton v. American Standard (inc.) (2008)
• Georgia-Pacific Corporation v. Stephens (2007)
• McGonnell v. Kaiser Gypsum Co., Inc. (2002)

In our library

2 documents in our library name Kaiser Gypsum, by collection.

Other library documents (2)

• Kaiser Gypsum's Amended Responses to Plaintiffs' Master Interrogatories in Dallas County (1992) (publisher)
• Label: Null-A-Fire gypsum board 5/8\" x 4' x 8' (Kaiser Gypsum Company, Inc.) (1953) (publisher)

In the Union Carbide documents

Kaiser Gypsum is named in 8 Union Carbide documents dated 1966 to 1986 (1 as the source, 8 mentioned), from asbestos lawsuits over Union Carbide's Calidria asbestos. All are published in our collection.

• Chemplast Development Market Manager Detail Sheets: Asbestos Sales by Customer, August (1966) UC-432 (mentioned)
• Gypsum Association Safety Committee Meeting Minutes, Saddle Brook, New Jersey (1967) UC-5490 (mentioned)
• H. B. Rhodes Report of Call to Kaiser Gypsum Corp. (Jacksonville, Fla.) on SG-210 for Ready-Mix Joint Compound Color (1971) UC-669 (mentioned)
• R. W. Grigg (Kaiser Gypsum) to Walter J. Fitzpatrick on Health Hazards and Precautions for Asbestos Fiber Purchases (1971) UC-5416 (mentioned, source)
• John L. Myers to R. W. Grigg (Kaiser Gypsum) Answering Questions on Asbestos Toxicology and Regulations (1972) UC-4492 (mentioned)
• R. E. Byrne, Jr. to J. L. Myers Transmitting Western States Sales Performance and Prospect List for Calidria Asbestos (1975) UC-4463 (mentioned)
• Harrisons & Crosfield (Pacific) Calidria SG-210 Supply Agreement Letters to Bartel, March, Merrill, Watkins, Grigg and Shock, with Union Carbide Letter to Lebeis and Exhibit A Terms (1975) UC-5256 (mentioned)
• Computer Printout of Shipments to U.S. Gypsum, National Gypsum and Kaiser Gypsum, 1966-1973 (1986) UC-4167 (mentioned)

Names in the documents

The spellings documents use for Kaiser Gypsum, OCR misreadings included, so a search for any of them finds this page: Kaiser Gypsum Company, Inc · Kaiser Gypsum Company · Kaiser Gypsum Corp.

Where this comes from

This page brings together every document in our library that names Kaiser Gypsum, across collections. Titles and affiliations are taken from the documents themselves, and units and subsidiaries are grouped under the company they belong to.