Whittaker, Clark & Daniels

Whittaker, Clark & Daniels was a New York mineral and pigment supplier, later based in New Jersey, that for four decades was a United States representative of Asbestos Corporation Limited, a Quebec asbestos producer, and also supplied talc. It has been sued as the supplier of talc used in cosmetic and body powders. It stopped operating in 2004 and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2023.

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

History

A 2024 federal court opinion, drawing on the parties' briefs, gives the company's history. WCD supplied "minerals and pigments" to industrial customers from 1918 through 2004, and reincorporated in New Jersey in 1972. The court quoted a description of WCD at its peak as "one of the largest talc and industrial compound supply and distribution businesses in the United States."¹ Brilliant National Services bought WCD's stock in 1988. In 2004 WCD's operating assets were sold to Bain Capital, and WCD kept its asbestos and talc liabilities. In 2007 National Indemnity Company, an affiliate of Berkshire Hathaway, bought WCD and its affiliates.¹ In a 2016 case, a plaintiff sued Brenntag North America and Brenntag Specialties as successors in interest to WCD.⁶

Asbestos

Representative of Asbestos Corporation Limited. Advertisements for Asbestos Corporation Limited in the trade magazine Asbestos list WCD as the company's New York representative. The February 1935 advertisement gives WCD's address as 245 Front Street, New York.² From July 1935 the address is 260 West Broadway, and the listing continues into the mid-1950s.⁷⁸ In 1964 the advertisement, headed "Asbestos Corporation Limited Representatives in the United States," lists WCD at 100 Church Street, New York.⁹ By August 1972 it lists WCD at 1000 Coolidge Street, South Plainfield, New Jersey, and it still does in October 1975.¹⁰³

Asbestos in Union Carbide formulas. An undated Union Carbide formulation sheet for a latex patching compound names two sources of asbestos shorts: "Asbestos 1422 - Whittaker, Clark and Daniels" and a Johns-Manville grade.¹¹

Talc

A 1973 animal study. In May 1973 William E. Smith, M.D., of Fairleigh Dickinson University, published a short report on a test of talc containing asbestos. He wrote that his group "obtained samples of commercial talcs from Whittaker, Clark & Daniels, Inc., New York City." A cosmetic talcum powder grade showed the platy particles typical of talc. A grade used for some industrial purposes was a mixture of platy and fibrous particles, and X-ray analysis found "major amounts of tremolite asbestos and talc."¹² Hamsters injected with that industrial sample developed no tumors attributable to it. Smith concluded that his results did not support the view that asbestos-containing talc contributes to stomach cancer in Japan.¹²¹³ The Asbestos Information Association sent the article to its members.¹²

Lawsuits. The earliest decision in our library that names WCD, Westfall v. Whittaker, Clark & Daniels (D.R.I. 1983), concerned a claim of talc exposure at the Uniroyal plant in Providence, Rhode Island. The ruling dealt only with whether two other defendants were sued in time.¹⁴ Many of the later cases that name WCD involve claims that talc it supplied went into cosmetic and body powders.⁴⁵¹⁵ In one New York case, the plaintiffs offered documents showing that Estée Lauder made its Youth Dew dusting powder in Melville, New York, using WCD's talc.¹⁵

Two New York appeals courts set aside verdicts against WCD. In 2019 the Appellate Division, First Department, reversed a jury verdict in a talcum powder case and dismissed the complaint against WCD, holding that the evidence did not show exposure high enough to cause the disease.¹⁶ In Nemeth v. Brenntag North America (N.Y. 2022), the plaintiff alleged that WCD supplied the asbestos-contaminated talc used in Desert Flower talcum powder. A jury found for the plaintiff, but the Court of Appeals reversed and dismissed the complaint against WCD. It held that the plaintiff's experts had not shown enough exposure to cause the disease. One judge dissented.⁴ In Fisher v. American International Industries (Pa. Super. Ct. 2024), a case over Clubman talc, the court ordered the verdict divided equally among American International Industries, WCD and Colgate.¹⁷

Bankruptcy

The 2024 opinion records that WCD stopped operating commercially in 2004, and that the receiver and the talc claimants described it as "a nonoperating shell entity" kept in existence to manage its asbestos and talc liabilities. Citing their brief, the court said WCD and its affiliates had paid $300 million on asbestos and environmental claims since 2007, and that about 1,012 asbestos and talc claims were pending against WCD when it filed for bankruptcy.¹ In March 2023 a South Carolina jury returned a verdict of more than $29 million against WCD in a cosmetic talc case, and a South Carolina judge then appointed a receiver for the company. In April 2023 a newly formed WCD board filed for Chapter 11 in New Jersey, with Brilliant National Services, L.A. Terminals and Soco West.¹ The receiver and the committee of talc claimants asked the bankruptcy court to dismiss the case, arguing the board had no power to file. The bankruptcy court refused, and in Protopapas v. Whittaker, Clark & Daniels (D.N.J. 2024) the district court affirmed.¹ No WCD trust appears on our list of asbestos trusts.¹⁸

References

1. Protopapas v. Whittaker, Clark & Daniels, Inc. (D.N.J. 2024)
2. Asbestos, February 1935, p. 19
3. Asbestos, October 1975, p. 23
4. Nemeth v. Brenntag N. Am. (N.Y. 2022)
5. Hernandez v. Whittaker, Clark & Daniels (In re New York City Asbestos Litigation, N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2019)
6. Branson v. American International Industries (M.D.N.C. 2016)
7. Asbestos, July 1935, p. 19
8. Asbestos, June 1954, p. 21
9. Asbestos, April 1964, p. 8
10. Asbestos, August 1972, p. 31
11. UC-1015: Union Carbide Coatings Materials Formulation Suggestions for Asbestos-Containing Patching Compounds and Textured Wall Coating, p. 2
12. AIA-52: R. H. Mereness to AIA/NA Members, Items of Interest, Transmitting Environmental Action and AIHA Journal Articles on Asbestos (1973), p. 4
13. AIA-52, p. 5
14. Westfall v. Whittaker, Clark & Daniels (D.R.I. 1983)
15. DeKlerk v. Estée Lauder (In re New York City Asbestos Litigation, N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2020)
16. Matter of New York City Asbestos Litigation (N.Y. App. Div. 2019)
17. Fisher v. American International Industries (Pa. Super. Ct. 2024)
18. Asbestos trusts A–Z

Asbestos products

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

• Whittaker (Whittaker, Clark & Daniels)

Court cases

47 court decisions in our case-law library name Whittaker, Clark & Daniels as a defendant, newest first.

• Protopapas v. Whittaker, Clark & Daniels, Inc. (2024)
• Fisher v. American International Industries (2024)
• Campise v. Arkema, Inc. (2023)
• Bell v. American International Industries (2022)
• Nemeth v. Brenntag N. Am. (2022)
• Hunter v. Coty, Inc. (2022)
• Hunter v. Coty, Inc. (2022)
• Hunter v. Coty, Inc. (2022)
• Lanzo v. Cyprus Amax Minerals Company (2021)
• Milan-Leal v. Brenntag N. AM. (2021)
• Burnett v. American International Industries (2020)
• English v. Avon Prods., Inc. (2020)
• DeKlerk v. Estée Lauder (In re New York City Asbestos Litigation, 2020)
• Luca v. Whittaker, Clark and Daniels (In re New York City Asbestos Litigation, 2020)
• Luca v. American Int'l Indus. (In re New York City Asbestos Litigation, 2020)
• McDaniel v. Revlon, Inc. (2020)
• Nemeth v. Brenntag N. Am. (2020)
• Kirkwood v. Brenntag North America, Inc. (2020)
• Hardman v. Revlon (In re New York City Asbestos Litigation, 2020)
• Rothlein v. Whittaker Clark & Daniels (In re New York City Asbestos Litigation, 2020)
• Germain v. Whittaker Clark & Daniels (In re New York City Asbestos Litigation, 2020)
• Williams v. Avon Products, Inc. (2019)
• Ratcliff v. American Honda Motor Co. Inc. (2019)
• Fishbain v. Colgate-Palmolive Company (2019)
• Gladyszewski v. Whittaker, Clark & Daniels (In re New York City Asbestos Litigation, 2019)
• Hernandez v. Whittaker, Clark & Daniels (In re New York City Asbestos Litigation, 2019)
• Matter of New York City Asbestos Litig. (2019)
• Alleyne v. Revlon (Matter of New York City Asbestos Litigation, 2019)
• Alleyne v. Whittaker Clark & Daniels (In re New York City Asbestos Litigation, 2019)
• Levin v. Johnson & Johnson (2019)
• Young v. Whittaker, Clark & Daniels (In re New York City Asbestos Litigation, 2019)
• Shanahan v. Kolmar Laboratories, Inc. (2019)
• Smith v. Avon Products, Inc. (2019)
• Rousseau v. Johnson & Johnson (2018)
• Hodjera v. BASF Catalysts LLC (2017)
• Hodjera v. BASF Catalysts LLC (2017)
• Hodjera v. BASF Catalysts LLC (2017)
• Fogel v. American Int'l Indus. for Clubman (Matter of New York City Asbestos Litig., 2017)
• LoGiudice v. Colgate-Palmolive Co. (In re New York City Asbestos Litigation, 2016)
• Hernandez v. Brenntag North America, Inc. (2016)
• Branson v. American International Industries (2016)
• Viera v. BASF Catalysts LLC (2016)
• Viera v. BASF Catalysts LLC (2015)
• Kaenzig v. Charles B. Chrystal Company, Inc. (2015)
• Hasenberg v. Air & Liquid Systems Corp. (2014)
• Bush v. Eaton Corporation (2010)
• Westfall v. Whittaker, Clark & Daniels (1983)

In the Union Carbide documents

Whittaker, Clark & Daniels is named in 2 Union Carbide documents dated 1956 (2 mentioned), from asbestos lawsuits over Union Carbide's Calidria asbestos. All are published in our collection.

• W. J. Frissell, Effect of Fillers in Polyethylene, Bakelite Company reprint from Plastics Technology (1956) UC-777 (mentioned)
• Union Carbide Coatings Materials Formulation Suggestions for Asbestos-Containing Patching Compounds and Textured Wall Coating UC-1015 (mentioned)

Names in the documents

The spellings documents use for Whittaker, Clark & Daniels, OCR misreadings included, so a search for any of them finds this page: Whittaker, Clark & Daniels, Inc · Whittaker, Clark and Daniels.

Where this comes from

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