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Amatex Corporation

Amatex Corporation, of Norristown, Pennsylvania, made asbestos textiles, including cloth, tape and lagging, with mills in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire and affiliates in Mexico. It was called American Asbestos Textile Corporation from 1950 until 1972. By 1979 it was a defendant in hundreds of asbestos lawsuits, and in 1982 it filed for reorganization in bankruptcy, a case that later courts cite on how people exposed to asbestos but not yet sick are represented.

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History

The fullest account in our library is a 1971 chapter in Asbestos, the industry's trade journal, from its series on the history of the American asbestos textile industry.1 It begins with an older company, American Asbestos Co., organized on July 21, 1909, by J. Gillmur Tyson, who had trained at Keasbey & Mattison.1 That company first made asbestos packings at Norristown, soon added carding, spinning and weaving equipment to make its own asbestos textiles, and went on to make woven brake lining.1 The article stresses that American Asbestos Textile Corporation "is not a direct descendent" of it, although the two companies used the same Norristown buildings in turn.1

The line of descent the article traces runs through Philadelphia Asbestos Co., an insulation contractor founded in 1921 by Edmund R. Teubner, Jr., which specialized in work on ships.12 During World War II, the article says, it was the major shipboard insulation contractor at the New York Shipbuilding and Sun Shipbuilding yards, needed more asbestos cloth than its suppliers could provide, and in November 1942 bought the run-down Norristown plant.12 Anthony J. Scanlan ran the business and John W. Weber rebuilt the mill to weave asbestos cloth to Navy and Coast Guard specifications.2

American Asbestos Textile Corporation was formed on October 23, 1950, to run the textile mill as a separate business.6 Weber became president after Scanlan died in 1965.6 By 1962, the article says, Turner & Newall had decided to wind up Keasbey & Mattison, and American agreed to buy Keasbey & Mattison's asbestos textile mill at Meredith, New Hampshire, bringing in John L. Rainey and other experienced textile men.6 In 1962 the company also formed an affiliate in Toluca, Mexico, Hilados y Tejidos de Asbestos S.A., and in 1968 it opened a spinning mill at Milford Square, Pennsylvania, which the article says had "an ultra-modern system for removing asbestos dust from the air."610 Rainey became president in 1970.611

In the data sheet The Travelers Insurance Company compiled for a 1980 asbestos seminar from defendants' interrogatory answers, Amatex said it had bought the assets of Keasbey & Mattison and of Pacor and had assumed "certain limited liabilities."29 It listed two plants, Norristown since October 23, 1950, and Meredith, New Hampshire, since 1962, and dated its asbestos cord, tubing, wick and rope from July 2, 1962.29 It said Amatex did not mine or mill asbestos and named its fiber suppliers since 1950 as Bell, Cassiar, Lake Asbestos, Asbestos Corporation, Johns-Manville and "Rhodesian Mines (South Africa)."29

In December 1972 the company announced its "new, shorter name," Amatex Corporation, describing itself as a maker of industrial textile products.12 According to the 1986 Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases, Philadelphia Asbestos Corp. changed its name to PACOR Inc. the same year.28 In a greeting the next month Rainey wrote that 1972 had been "a year of uncertainty for the Asbestos Industry" but a record year for Amatex sales.13 In December 1978 Asbestos still listed an Amatex officer at the Meredith, New Hampshire, plant.14

Asbestos products

Amatex's own labels name its Style F-200 and Style F-630 asbestos woven tape.1516 A 1981 product list in a Travelers Insurance Company seminar booklet, which is the insurer's description and not the company's, gives Quietline and Titegrip cloth as 75 to 95 percent asbestos, Safecote as an aluminum-coated cloth at 80 percent, and Thermolan 26 cloth at 97 percent; it dates Quietline from 1967, Safecote from 1969 and Thermolan 26 from 1970.3 A 1986 reference book lists Amatex's Litelag as "80-95% asbestos lagging."4 By 1978 Amatex was also selling Thermoglass glass-fiber textiles.17 In 1984 the insulation contractor ACandS named Amatex among the manufacturers from which it had obtained asbestos-containing products.18 The 1980 Travelers data sheet says all Amatex products contained 75 to 95 percent chrysotile; it dates the company's asbestos roving, yarn, cloth and carded fiber from October 23, 1950, and says Amatex had no record of production dates for its asbestos lap, thread and tape.29

What the documents show

The Union Carbide tape memos. In March 1979 H. H. Frazier of Union Carbide's industrial hygiene staff wrote about the woven asbestos tape used at the company's Institute plant, Plant 512.19 His memo says that "AMATEX woven tape is a product of Mexico" and that it "contains raw asbestos fibers of various lengths including dust."19 It reports three measurements taken where the tape was used at Union Carbide's Technical Center, ranging from 0.03 to 1.9 fibers per cc; the memo says these did not exceed the standards then in force but that more extensive use at plant locations "could result in significant problems."19 Frazier recommended that Amatex tape no longer be bought for the plant, and the construction manager, D. R. Paugh, agreed; a May 1979 memo confirms the construction group was complying.1920 Another Paugh memo says the plant was arranging to stock fiberglass tape made by Amatex instead.21

The Mexican plants. In February 1979 Asbestos summarized an article in Environmental Action that singled out Amatex as having closed a U.S. plant and opened two subsidiaries "just across the Mexican border" to avoid U.S. regulation.22 The journal reported that Amatex answered what it called "irresponsible journalism" with a four-page statement on working conditions at its plants, especially in Juarez, Mexico.22

The industry associations. John Rainey served as president of the Asbestos Textile Institute in 1967 and 1968.6 In 1976 Amatex was among the companies that endorsed the Asbestos Information Association's comments to OSHA on a proposed new asbestos standard, and Rainey attended a 1977 meeting of the association's executive committee.2324

Amatex's answers as compiled by Travelers in 1980. The Travelers data sheet gives Amatex's first knowledge of the hazards as June 7, 1972, "upon promulgation of OSHA regulations," and gives the same date for its first warning label.2930 On sales, the sheet says Amatex did not deny sales to the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, a Navy yard, but denied sales to the U.S. Government; it also denied having contract units in California between 1955 and 1970.30

Lawsuits and bankruptcy

In February 1979 Amatex asked a Pennsylvania court to decide which of its liability insurers had to cover the asbestos claims against it; its petition said it had been named as a defendant in 766 pending cases, as of January 31, 1979, in eleven states.7 The court dismissed the petition in August 1979, holding among other things that the injured claimants had to be made parties.7 Amatex was also a named defendant in suits decided in our case library, including Staiano v. Johns-Manville Corp. (Pa. Super. 1982), Lowe v. Johns-Manville Corp. (E.D. Pa. 1985) and Wilder v. Amatex Corp. (N.C. 1985).252627

Amatex filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in 1982. Later asbestos bankruptcy decisions in our library cite the bankruptcy court's 1983 ruling in In re Amatex Corp. and the Third Circuit's 1985 decision in the same case.89 The Third Circuit described "future claimants" as people "who have been exposed to asbestos but have not yet manifested symptoms of asbestos-related disease."8 Later courts cite its definition of a party in interest as one who "has a sufficient stake in the proceeding so as to require representation."9 A 1987 bankruptcy decision cites Amatex in noting that courts handling asbestos Chapter 11 cases had been fairly consistent in appointing legal representatives for such claimants.8 Our library does not yet hold a page on any trust that pays Amatex claims.

References

  1. Asbestos, July 1971, pp. 4 and 6 ("The History of the Asbestos Textile Industry in the United States, Chapter XI")
  2. Asbestos, July 1971, p. 8
  3. The Travelers Insurance Company's Product Information Booklet for Its Asbestos Seminar (1980–1981), pp. 7 and 9
  4. Litelag (Amatex), product page
  5. Asbestos, September 1969, p. 27
  6. Asbestos, July 1971, p. 10
  7. Amatex Corp. v. Aetna (Pa. Com. Pl. 1979)
  8. In re UNR Industries, Inc. (Bankr. N.D. Ill. 1987)
  9. In re United Refining Company (Bankr. S.D. Tex. 2021); In re Pittsburgh Corning Corporation (Bankr. W.D. Pa. 2011)
  10. Asbestos, July 1971, p. 12
  11. Asbestos, August 1970, p. 58
  12. Asbestos, December 1972, p. 15
  13. Asbestos, January 1973, p. 4
  14. Asbestos, December 1978, p. 65
  15. Product: Asbestos woven tape, Style F-200 (Amatex Corporation)
  16. Label: Asbestos Woven Tape, style F-630 (Amatex, Incorporated)
  17. Amatex Corporation Packing Slip for Thermoglass Samples, with Amatex Thermoglass Textiles Brochure (1978), UC-4030
  18. ACandS's Answers to Plaintiffs' Master Interrogatories in Bellows v. Fibreboard (1984), p. 10
  19. H. H. Frazier to Peter Barna on Use of AMATEX Asbestos Tape in Plant 512 (1979), UC-27, pp. 1–2
  20. D. R. Paugh to J. R. Soice on Discontinuing AMATEX Asbestos Tape in the Construction Group (1979), UC-3270
  21. D. R. Paugh to H. H. Frazier on Use of AMATEX Asbestos Tape in Plant 512 (1979), UC-3359
  22. Asbestos, February 1979, p. 47
  23. R. H. Mereness (AIA) to OSHA Docket Officer, Docket H-033 (1976), AIA-115, p. 2
  24. Asbestos Information Association Executive Committee Minutes on Litigation Files, Expert Witnesses and a Captive Insurer (February 10, 1977), p. 1
  25. Staiano v. Johns-Manville Corp. (Pa. Super. 1982)
  26. Lowe v. Johns-Manville Corp. (E.D. Pa. 1985)
  27. Wilder v. Amatex Corp. (N.C. 1985)
  28. Barbara J. Peters and George A. Peters, Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases: Medical, Legal, and Engineering Aspects, vol. 2 (New York: Garland Law Publishing, 1986), p. 160.
  29. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Amatex Product Information, p. 2
  30. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Amatex Product Information, p. 3

Asbestos products

9 products our documents name Amatex Corporation as making or selling. Each product's page says what the documents say about it, including its asbestos content.

Plants

Plants where asbestos products were made that the documents say Amatex Corporation ran.

Court cases

2 court decisions in our case-law library name Amatex Corporation as a defendant, newest first.

In our library

2 documents in our library name Amatex Corporation, by collection.

Other library documents (2)

In the Union Carbide documents

Amatex Corporation is named in 13 Union Carbide documents dated 1972 to 1983 (1 as the source, 13 mentioned), from asbestos lawsuits over Union Carbide's Calidria asbestos. All are published in our collection.

Names in the documents

The spellings documents use for Amatex Corporation, OCR misreadings included, so a search for any of them finds this page: Amatex · American Asbestos Textile Corporation · AMATEX, Incorporated · Amatex Corp.

Where this comes from

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

Mentioned on this site

Cite this page

“Amatex Corporation.” AsbestosClaims.Law Library. https://asbestosclaims.law/library/organizations/amatex-corporation.

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This page is provided for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Every asbestos case turns on its own facts, exposure history, diagnosis, deadlines, available evidence, and applicable law. Reviewing this page does not create an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your specific situation, call 833-4-ASBESTOS for a free case review.