Atlas Turner, Inc

Atlas Turner Inc. of Montreal, formerly Atlas Asbestos Company Ltd., was a Canadian maker of asbestos-cement pipe, sheets and tiles and, according to court decisions, of asbestos pipe covering, block and insulating cement. It was 90% owned by the British firm Turner & Newall until a government agency, Société Nationale de l'Amiante, bought it in 1980, and that agency sold it in 1989. Our case-law library holds 11 decisions naming it as a defendant, and our trust list has no asbestos trust in its name.

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

History

The trade magazine Asbestos identified Atlas Turner Inc. in 1979 as the former Atlas Asbestos Co. Ltd.^1,8 Its address was 5600 Hochelaga Street, Montreal, according to a 1980 member list of the Asbestos Information Association/North America.⁹ The magazine's 1980 report on its sale said Atlas Turner ran an 18-acre plant under one roof.⁴ A 1979 notice of the retirement of its vice president for manufacturing, Russell A. Todd, said he had started as a summer draftsman for Atlas in 1947.¹⁰ The magazine named John D. Zacharias as the company's president in 1979.^1,8

In the data sheet The Travelers Insurance Company compiled for a 1980 asbestos seminar from defendants' interrogatory answers, Atlas Asbestos Company, Ltd., "Now Known as Atlas Turner Inc.," said it had assumed the assets of predecessor companies, which the sheet does not name, and had made its products at Montreal since 1948; it said it did not mine or mill asbestos.²⁶ It named its fiber suppliers as Bell Asbestos Mines, Ltd., Associated Mineral Corporation and Turners' Asbestos Fibers, Ltd., said it had used fiber from South Africa since 1948, and said it got Limpet from England from 1948 to 1964.²⁶ The 1986 Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases, a compilation by plaintiffs' attorneys, lists Atlas Asbestos Co. Ltd. of Quebec as acquired by Turner & Newall Ltd., without a date.²⁷

In 1979 Asbestos reported that the company had won a five-year, $23-million contract to supply asbestos-cement panels for large cooling towers in the United States, with first delivery due in August 1979 to Research-Cottrell, Inc., at Bound Brook, New Jersey.⁸ The magazine said 22 jobs had been added at the Montreal plant because of the contract.⁸ The same report said Atlas Turner had opened a distribution center at Surrey, British Columbia, on March 30, 1979, at a cost of about $675,000.⁸ In June 1980 Asbestos, summarizing Turner & Newall's annual report for 1979, said Atlas Turner had incurred a loss for the year, closed two unprofitable activities and begun selling panels for the U.S. cooling-tower contract.¹¹

In May 1980 Asbestos reported that Turner & Newall had agreed in principle to sell most of its Canadian interests to Société Nationale de l'Amiante for C$35.5 million.⁴ The price included $32.3 million for Bell Asbestos Mines and $3.2 million for Atlas Turner and its sister company, Turners Building Products Ltd. of Mission, British Columbia.⁴ The magazine said Turner & Newall owned 90% of the two manufacturers and Cassiar Asbestos Corporation held the other 10%.⁴ It also reported that Atlas Turner used about 3% of the fiber mined in Quebec, which it described as almost all of the domestic use of Quebec fiber.¹² In a 2000 decision, a federal court in New York wrote that the agency owned Atlas Turner from 1980 to 1989 and then sold it.⁵

Asbestos products

A 1981 report in Asbestos described Atlas Turner and Turners Building Products as makers of asbestos-cement pipe for municipal water and sewer lines and of asbestos-cement building sheets and tiles.² A 1979 report on the plant's sheeting machines mentions profile sheets such as roof decking and Trafford Tile, and the conversion of one machine to make fill sheets for cooling towers.¹³ A 1980 article in the magazine said Atlas Turner had developed a textured asbestos-cement sheet called Agedroc.¹⁴

Our library holds a bilingual Canadian label for Sheetflextos with the Atlas Turner logo.¹⁵ The trademark file gives first use in commerce on November 15, 1934, and records that statement as made by Bell Asbestos Mines, Ltd.¹⁶

Insulation appears in the court records. In Hamilton v. Garlock (2000), the court wrote that the evidence at trial established that Atlas Turner made and sold asbestos pipe covering, block and cement, and that its interrogatory answers described them as "High Temperature Insulation" for "Pipe and Boiler Insulation."³ In Langhorne v. Aerofin Corp. (2014), a New York court described testimony that a New York insulation contractor bought Atlas's Newtherm pipe insulation in the 1960s, and noted that there was no dispute that Atlas Turner was responsible for Newtherm products.¹⁷ The same witness testified that a later version, Newtherm 73, was asbestos-free.¹⁷ The trial record in Hamilton included Atlas Turner's interrogatory answers denying any sales of its asbestos cement into the United States.³ The court held that testimony from the Ronsini case had been properly admitted to establish "that Atlas Turner's products were sold in the United States."³ In Ronsini v. Worthington Corp. (1998), a New York appeals court referred to testimony that Atlas Turner did not sell its insulating cement in the United States and was prohibited by statute from doing so, and upheld the jury's finding against it.¹⁸

The Travelers data sheet gives Atlas's manufacturing years as 1948 to 1974. Its product table lists, as made by Atlas, Sprayed Limpet Asbestos from 1948 to 1973, which the sheet says contained 60 to 98% amosite or crocidolite; Atlasite pipe covering, sheets and block, 85% amosite, from 1950 to 1973; and Newtherm calcium silicate pipe covering and block from 1964 to 1973.^26,28 The sheet says Atlas had "No distributors or sales in U.S. prior to 1964" and denies sales to the Navy, but it lists sales to U.S. government buyers from 1970 to 1976, among them the U.S. Naval Academy in 1970 and the National Bureau of Standards.²⁹ An attached exhibit lists sales of insulation and Limpet to Armstrong Cork's contracting companies, including A.C. & S., at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Houston, St. Louis and other American cities in the years ended 1968 to 1973, and from 1974 to 1978 sales of insulation it describes as non-asbestos; it also lists smaller sales of insulation and Limpet to Johns-Manville, Owens-Corning Fiberglas and Fibreboard; the sheet also names Armstrong Contracting and Supply as having a relabeling agreement with Atlas.^29,30,31,32 The same exhibit lists small sales of an asbestos-cement "hand moulded product" to St. Louis in 1974, of asbestos-cement building materials to Lancaster in 1978, and of asbestos-cement building materials to Keene in the years ended March 1971 and March 1972.^32,33 It does not say whether any of the insulation it lists was the insulating cement that, according to Hamilton, Atlas Turner's New York interrogatory answers said it never sold into the United States.³

What the documents show

In Hamilton v. Garlock (2000), the court listed the evidence the jury heard on notice. It wrote that Atlas Turner's parent, Turner & Newall, received copies of a 1943 interim report on the Saranac experiments, and that Atlas Turner's president, J. A. Smith, attended Asbestos Textile Institute meetings in the 1950s on behalf of Bell Asbestos Mines.³ The court also wrote that there was evidence that Turner & Newall had warned Atlas Asbestos about the dangers of asbestos to workers.³ These are the court's descriptions of trial evidence, not documents our library holds.

Atlas's own answer on hazards, in the 1980 Travelers data sheet, was "Always had knowledge, but moreso in 1960's." The sheet gives its first warning labels as July 1972 for insulation products and December 1975 for cement building materials, and gives as its reason for changing or dropping products that customers were not making sure the ultimate users took safety precautions.²⁶

By 1980 the company took part in the industry's trade group. Frank Betts of Atlas-Turner, Inc. attended the April 9, 1980 executive committee meeting of the Asbestos Information Association/North America (UC-4870).¹⁹ Asbestos reported in 1980 that the company had banned smoking in its head office except at an employee's own desk and offered courses to help workers stop smoking.²⁰

Lawsuits

In several American suits, Atlas Turner argued that the courts had no jurisdiction over a Canadian company. In Hamilton v. Atlas Turner, Inc. (1999), the federal appeals court in New York held that Atlas Turner had forfeited that defense by taking part in the case for years without pressing it; the court reversed the dismissal that had followed a jury verdict against the company and sent the case back.²¹ A New York state court reached a similar result on waiver in Langhorne v. Aerofin Corp. (2014).¹⁷ In Vasura v. ACandS (2000), Atlas Turner tried to move a case to federal court as a "foreign state" because of its years of government ownership; the court sent the case back to state court.⁵ In Farrall v. Atlas Turner (2011), a Delaware court held that releases signed in 1982, in a suit filed in 1973 against Atlas Turner and Bell Asbestos Mines, barred a new suit by the same plaintiffs.²² A California case, Karal v. Atlas Turner, Inc., appears in the Union Carbide trial exhibits (UC-5456).²³

Trust

Our list of asbestos trusts does not include one for Atlas Turner.⁷ Its former parent's trust, the Federal-Mogul and Turner & Newall trust, has its own page; that page does not mention Atlas Turner.²⁴ The caption of a 2006 Oregon appeal, Weihl v. Asbestos Corporation, Ltd., names Bell Asbestos Mines "individually and as successor-in-interest to Atlas Turner, Inc., and Turner & Newell, PLC"; that is how the plaintiff named the parties, not a finding by the court.²⁵

References

1. Asbestos, May 1979, p. 48
2. Asbestos, March 1981, p. 34
3. Hamilton v. Garlock, Inc. (S.D.N.Y. 2000)
4. Asbestos, May 1980, p. 4
5. Vasura v. ACandS (S.D.N.Y. 2000)
6. Atlas Turner, Inc., company page
7. Asbestos trusts A–Z
8. Asbestos, June 1979, p. 24
9. UC-4878: Asbestos Information Association/North America List of Member Companies (1980), p. 1
10. Asbestos, August 1979, p. 20
11. Asbestos, June 1980, p. 40
12. Asbestos, May 1980, p. 6
13. Asbestos, November 1979, p. 10
14. Asbestos, January 1980, p. 22
15. Label: Sheetflextos 1/8" (Atlas Turner Inc.)
16. Sheetflextos (Atlas Turner), product page
17. Langhorne v. Aerofin Corp. (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2014)
18. Ronsini v. Worthington Corp. (N.Y. App. Div. 1998)
19. UC-4870: Asbestos Information Association Executive Committee Meeting Minutes (April 9, 1980), p. 1
20. Asbestos, April 1980, p. 12
21. Hamilton v. Atlas Turner, Inc. (2d Cir. 1999)
22. Farrall v. Atlas Turner (Del. Super. Ct. 2011)
23. UC-5456: United States Gypsum Company's Responses to Standard Interrogatories in Karal v. Atlas Turner, Inc. (2001), p. 1
24. Federal-Mogul and Turner & Newall (T&N) trust
25. Weihl v. Asbestos Corporation, Ltd. (Or. Ct. App. 2006)
26. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Atlas Asbestos Company Product Information, p. 2
27. 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. 158.
28. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Atlas Asbestos Company Product Information, p. 4
29. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Atlas Asbestos Company Product Information, p. 3
30. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Atlas Asbestos Company Product Information, p. 6
31. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Atlas Asbestos Company Product Information, p. 7
32. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Atlas Asbestos Company Product Information, p. 8
33. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Atlas Asbestos Company Product Information, p. 10

Asbestos products

28 products our documents name Atlas Turner, Inc 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 Atlas Turner, Inc ran.

• Atlas Asbestos Company, Montreal plant at Montreal, Quebec

Court cases

11 court decisions in our case-law library name Atlas Turner, Inc as a defendant, newest first.

• Langhorne v. Aerofin Corp. (2014)
• Farrall v. Atlas Turner (In re Asbestos Litigation Limited TO Farrall, 2011)
• Allied Signal, Inc. v. Herring (2001)
• Hamilton v. Garlock, Inc. (2000)
• Vasura v. Acands (2000)
• Hamilton v. Atlas Turner, Inc. (1999)
• Holmes v. ACandS, Inc. (1999)
• Hamilton v. Garlock, Inc. (1998)
• Ronsini v. Worthington Corp. (Matter Of New York City Asbestos Litigation. Elaine Ronsini V. Garlock, Inc., 1998)
• Tabolt v. Flintkote Co. (In re New York Asbestos Litigation, 1994)
• Puppe By Puppe v. AC and S., Inc. (1990)

In our library

2 documents in our library name Atlas Turner, Inc, by collection.

Other library documents (2)

• Atlas Asbestos Company: Properties and Characteristics data sheet (publisher)
• Label: Sheetflextos 1/8" (Atlas Turner Inc.) (1934) (publisher)

In the Union Carbide documents

Atlas Turner, Inc is named in 4 Union Carbide documents dated 1980 to 2003 (4 mentioned), from asbestos lawsuits over Union Carbide's Calidria asbestos. All are published in our collection.

• Asbestos Information Association Executive Committee Meeting Minutes (April 9, 1980) UC-4870 (mentioned)
• Asbestos Information Association/North America List of Member Companies (1980) UC-4878 (mentioned)
• United States Gypsum Company's Responses to Standard Interrogatories in Karal v. Atlas Turner, Inc., with Exhibits 1-9 (2001) UC-5456 (mentioned)
• Affidavit of Susan W. Gilefsky Attaching U.S. Gypsum and Georgia-Pacific Interrogatory Responses (2003) UC-5449 (mentioned)

Names in the documents

The spellings documents use for Atlas Turner, Inc, OCR misreadings included, so a search for any of them finds this page: Atlas Asbestos Company, Montreal · Atlas Turner Inc. · Atlas-Turner, Inc.

Where this comes from

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