Roemer Deposition

The Roemer Deposition refers to the 1984 sworn testimony of Charles H. Roemer, a former Unarco executive, who described an early-1940s meeting at which Johns-Manville's leadership allegedly said the company did not tell asbestos workers when their X-rays showed disease, because it was cheaper to keep them working. The deposition became a cornerstone piece of evidence in asbestos litigation showing that manufacturers knew about the health hazards and concealed them from workers. It is frequently used to support claims of corporate knowledge and punitive damages.

Origin

The deposition was taken on April 25, 1984, in connection with asbestos personal injury litigation. Roemer, then elderly, recounted under oath a meeting he said took place in the early 1940s, at Johns-Manville's offices, between Unarco's officers and two Johns-Manville men: its president, Lewis H. Brown, and its attorney, Vandiver Brown (no relation). Unarco had found asbestosis on the chest X-rays of some of its workers. Roemer testified that one of the Browns called Unarco's managers fools for telling workers they had it, and that when he asked Vandiver Brown whether he would let them work until they dropped dead, Brown said yes, because it saved a lot of money.

Significance in Asbestos Context

For patients and families, the Roemer Deposition is one of the cornerstone documents proving that asbestos manufacturers knew their products were sickening workers decades before warnings were placed on products. This kind of "state of the art" evidence is critical in cases seeking punitive damages, because it shows the conduct was not merely negligent but reckless or intentional. Your legal team will likely use the Roemer Deposition, alongside the Sumner Simpson Papers and other historical documents, to establish that the companies that exposed you or your loved one had knowledge of the danger and chose profit over worker safety. Defendants often challenge the deposition's reliability, arguing Roemer was recalling events forty years later, so courts and juries have to weigh it against the broader body of corroborating corporate documents.

Example Sentence

At trial, the plaintiff's attorney introduced the Roemer Deposition to show the jury that Johns-Manville executives had decided, decades before our father started working with asbestos, not to warn workers about what their X-rays revealed.

Related Terms

Sumner Simpson Papers, Vandiver Brown, Lewis H. Brown, Unarco, State of the Art Evidence, Johns-Manville, Punitive Damages, Corporate Knowledge, Asbestos Industry Conspiracy

Notes

• If your case involves exposure to Johns-Manville, Unarco, or Raybestos-Manhattan products, ask your attorney whether the Roemer Deposition will be part of the corporate-knowledge evidence presented in your case.
• Preserve any employment records, union records, or company medical files (especially old chest X-ray reports). These can connect a worker's individual experience to the broader pattern of concealment Roemer described.
• The Roemer testimony is most powerful when paired with contemporaneous documents such as the Sumner Simpson correspondence; ask whether your legal team is using both to support claims for punitive damages.
• Be aware that defendants routinely attack the credibility of the Roemer Deposition; understanding this helps explain why your attorneys may spend significant effort on historical corporate evidence rather than only your medical and exposure history.