Fibreboard Corporation

Fibreboard Corporation, earlier Fibreboard Paper Products Corporation, was a San Francisco company whose Pabco division made high-temperature pipe and block insulation, including Prasco, 85% Magnesia, Caltemp and Super Caltemp, that contained asbestos; the company gave 1971 as the last year of its asbestos production. It was the named defendant in Borel v. Fibreboard, the 1973 decision that held asbestos insulation makers strictly liable for failing to warn insulators. Owens Corning bought Fibreboard in 1997, and its asbestos claims are now paid by the Fibreboard sub-account of the Owens Corning/Fibreboard trust.

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

History

Fibreboard's insulation business began with the Plant Rubber & Asbestos Works of San Francisco. In June 1925 Asbestos, the industry's trade journal, said Plant had worked in insulation contracting for many years and had entered manufacturing "about five years ago."⁵ The article traced its high-temperature insulation to the 1906 San Francisco fire, after which Plant began experimenting with blocks made from California diatomaceous earth; it said the Prasco block, "composed of diatomaceous earth and asbestos fibres," had been developed about two years earlier.⁵ A 1924 Prasco advertisement gave Plant's address on Brannan Street in San Francisco and its mill at Redwood City, California.⁶

In 1941 Plant built a $250,000 plant at Emeryville, California, to make 85% Magnesia insulation, and its 1945 advertising listed factories in Emeryville, San Francisco and Redwood City.⁷⁸ By 1948 Plant was a division of The Paraffine Companies, Inc., and a notice that year said its name was changing to The Paraffine Companies, Inc., Insulation Division, which would sell "PABCO Precision Molded 85% MAGNESIA INSULATION" and Prasco.⁹ In 1951 Asbestos printed the earnings of Pabco Products, Inc., which then owned exactly half the voting stock of Fibreboard Products Inc.¹⁰ By 1957 Pabco's insulation was advertised by the "PABCO INSULATION DIVISION Fibreboard Paper Products Corporation," which called itself a maker of heat insulation since 1920.² According to the 1986 Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases, a compilation by plaintiffs' attorneys, the Paraffine Co. and the Plant Rubber & Asbestos Works both became part of Fibreboard Corp., and Pabco Insulation became Fibreboard's Pabco Insulation Division; the book says the division was later sold to Louisiana-Pacific Corp., which ran it as a division.²² The book also says that on December 31, 1967, Johns-Manville acquired 75 percent of Fibreboard's gypsum capacity.²³

In the data sheet The Travelers Insurance Company compiled for a 1980 asbestos seminar, mostly from defendants' answers to interrogatories, Fibreboard gave its principal place of business as Portland, Oregon.²⁵ The sheet says that in 1947 Plant Rubber & Asbestos Works, "a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fibreboard," was dissolved, some of its assets merged into Fibreboard and its liabilities assumed; the 1948 notice above instead described Plant as a division of The Paraffine Companies.⁹²⁵ The sheet adds that Fibreboard ran a wholly owned subsidiary, Pabco Insulation Corporation, from 1959 to 1961, that Plant did installation work before 1947 and Pabco between 1959 and 1961, and that the company did not mine or mill asbestos.²⁵²⁶ It put Fibreboard's plants at Redwood City and Emeryville, California, from 1928 to 1971, though the 1941 Asbestos item above dates the Emeryville plant from that year.⁷²⁵

In Ortiz v. Fibreboard Corp. (1999), the U.S. Supreme Court described Fibreboard as "primarily a timber company" that "from the 1920's through 1971" made a variety of asbestos products, "mainly for high-temperature industrial applications."¹¹ Fibreboard's own report to the EPA, published in 1990, gave its years of asbestos production as 1920 to 1971 and listed, besides insulation, asbestos-cement products, floor covering, roof paint, gypsum board and taping compounds.¹

Asbestos products

Fibreboard's sworn answers in the Borel case in April 1970 described its insulation in its own words: Prasco pipe covering, block and cement contained "85% diatamaceous earth and 15% asbestos"; Precision Molded 85% Magnesia contained 85% basic magnesium carbonate with 15% asbestos; and Caltemp and Super Caltemp were hydrous calcium silicate "with less than 15% Asbestos."¹² The same answers say the products were sold to distributors, contractors and government agencies, "primarily in the west and mid-west for use in new construction of refineries, petrochemical plants and power plants."¹²

The dates the company gave differ from one source to another, and the library does not settle them. The Borel answers, which responded to a question about products made since 1940, give Prasco "from 1940 to January, 1957," 85% Magnesia "from 1941 until 1966," and Caltemp "from 1950 to 1968."¹² The 1990 EPA notice gives Prasco and 85% Magnesia "from about 1928," and Caltemp "from about 1952 to 1968."¹ In Tomplait v. Combustion Engineering, where Fibreboard was also a defendant, the plaintiff's sworn answers of August 1968 say Fibreboard's interrogatory answers had put the start of its 85% Magnesia in 1925 and of Caltemp in 1956.¹³ Asbestos was carrying Prasco advertisements by 1924.⁶ The Travelers seminar booklet holds two lists that disagree with each other: a one-page company statement gives Prasco from 1940 to January 1957, Pabco magnesia from 1941 to 1966 and Caltemp from 1950 to 1968, while the exhibit attached to the data sheet gives Prasco and Pabco Magnesia from about 1928 and Caltemp from about 1952.²⁴²⁸ The company statement says Fibreboard stopped making asbestos-containing insulation on or about September 1, 1971.²⁴

According to the 1990 notice, Super Caltemp, made from the late 1960s until 1971, had its asbestos cut from about 12% to 3½%.¹ The same notice says Fibreboard made block and pipe insulation for other companies to sell under their own names: Kaylo for Owens-Corning Fiberglas from 1960 to 1971, LK Insulation for Armstrong Contracting and Supply from 1964 to 1971, and Pyrocal for PPG Industries from 1968 to 1971.¹ The exhibit to the Travelers data sheet dates these contracts differently: Kaylo from 1960 to 1972, LK for A. C. & S. from 1964 to 1972, and Pyrocal, under an oral contract, from 1965 to 1971; the sheet's table of sales to Owens-Corning under the Kaylo "Rebrand" contract runs from 1960 through 1971.²⁶²⁸ The Navy's lists of qualified pipe insulation name the Emeryville plant for Pabco, Caltemp, Prasco and Super Caltemp at various dates between 1951 and 1972.¹⁴ The Travelers sheet likewise gives block and pipe covering on the qualified products list since 1951 and 85% Magnesia since 1960, yet says Fibreboard, while admitting sales to the U.S. Government and GSA, denied sales to the Navy and to Long Beach Naval Shipyard, a denial "based upon lack of records."²⁶²⁷

Fibreboard also bought raw asbestos from fiber suppliers. The Travelers sheet names its sources as Egnep Ltd. of South Africa and North American Asbestos Co. of Chicago, plus others for which there were no records, and its exhibit says the products contained chrysotile, amosite or mixtures of the two.²⁵²⁸ In a June 1959 report of West Coast customer calls, T. J. Hall of Union Carbide wrote that "Fibreboard uses asbestos in insulation and in vinyl asbestos floor covering," and recorded that it was using 800 tons a year of one fiber grade and 300 tons of another in asbestos siding.¹⁵

What the documents show

In its April 1970 Borel answers, Fibreboard said it had made no studies of its own on how its products affected insulators, and pointed instead to studies by government and other scientists, including the 1946 Fleischer-Drinker survey of Navy pipe covering work.¹² It said it "knew of the disease or condition of asbestosis which occurred in mining and in plants which manufactured products containing some asbestos," and that its plants had dust control.¹² It also said it had "no control or right to control" the job sites where contractors used its products, and that it did not regularly inspect those sites or take dust samples in the field.¹²

The answers say that since 1966, "at the suggestion of an industry wide committee," Fibreboard's containers had carried a label reading: "This product contains asbestos fibers. If dust is created when this product is handled, avoid breathing the dust. If adequate ventilation control is not possible, wear respirator approved by U. S. Bureau of Mines."¹² A March 18, 1970 letter sent on Fibreboard's behalf to the plaintiff's lawyer enclosed current Pabco literature and samples, describing No. 127 Cement as "less than 5% asbestos" and noting that older literature was no longer available.¹⁶

The Travelers data sheet gives 1966 as the year of Fibreboard's first knowledge of hazards and of its first labeling, and "Health Hazard" as the reason its products' composition changed.²⁵ It also records two workers' compensation claims before 1965, the first in 1957, and says Fibreboard was not a member of the Asbestos Textile Institute.²⁷

Lawsuits

Fibreboard appears in 98 decisions in the library's case law.¹⁷ In Borel v. Fibreboard Paper Products Corporation (5th Cir. 1973), the court affirmed a verdict against six insulation makers, Fibreboard among them, holding that a maker of asbestos insulation can be strictly liable for failing to warn insulation workers, and that a warning given only to contractors does not by itself end that duty.³ The library holds the district court file.¹⁸ A May 1974 memo from R. A. Beck of Fibreboard's legal department reported that the Fifth Circuit had denied the defendants' motion for rehearing, and that a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court was probably the only further step.¹⁹ The Bureau of Mines' 1974 yearbook reported that on October 15 the Supreme Court let the Borel decision stand.²⁰

In In re Fibreboard Corp. (5th Cir. 1990), Fibreboard and two other defendants persuaded the appeals court to set aside the part of a trial plan that would have decided 3,031 Texas asbestos cases together by extrapolating from a sample of plaintiffs.²¹ In Ortiz v. Fibreboard Corp. (1999), the Supreme Court set aside the certification of a class for a $1.535 billion global settlement of claims against Fibreboard, most of it to be paid by its insurers, holding that the class did not meet the rules for a mandatory limited-fund class.¹¹

Bankruptcy and trust

Owens Corning acquired Fibreboard in 1997.⁴ When Owens Corning filed for Chapter 11 in 2000, Fibreboard's asbestos liability was resolved in the same case, In re Owens Corning, and a trust under section 524(g) of the Bankruptcy Code began in 2006.⁴ Claims for Fibreboard products are paid from the trust's separately funded Fibreboard sub-account.⁴

References

1. Asbestos; Publication of Identifying Information, Federal Register (February 13, 1990), p. 7
2. Asbestos, April 1957, p. 59
3. Borel v. Fibreboard Paper Products Corporation (5th Cir. 1973)
4. Fibreboard Asbestos Trust Claims
5. Asbestos, June 1925, p. 18
6. Asbestos, October 1924, p. 41
7. Asbestos, December 1941, p. 10
8. Asbestos, May 1945, p. 17
9. Asbestos, August 1948, p. 31
10. Asbestos, June 1951, p. 48
11. Ortiz v. Fibreboard Corp. (U.S. 1999)
12. Borel v. Fibreboard case file: Fibreboard's answers to interrogatories (April 3, 1970), pp. 1–8
13. Tomplait v. Combustion Engineering case file: Plaintiff's response to Fibreboard interrogatories (signed August 20, 1968), p. 6
14. Emeryville, California (Pabco Products / Fibreboard plant), plant page, citing the Military Qualified Products List (1951–1995)
15. Union Carbide 42: T. J. Hall to Dr. A. E. Pufahl on West Coast Asbestos Markets and Customer Calls (1959), p. 3
16. Borel v. Fibreboard case file: Letter to plaintiff regarding product information (March 18, 1970)
17. Fibreboard Corporation, company page
18. The Borel v. Fibreboard case file (1969–1972)
19. R. A. Beck of Fibreboard to R. G. Anderson on the Denial of Rehearing in Borel (1974)
20. Minerals Yearbook: Asbestos chapter, 1974, p. 2
21. In re Fibreboard Corp. (5th Cir. 1990)
22. 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.
23. 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. 169.
24. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Fibreboard Corporation (Pabco) Product Information, p. 2
25. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Fibreboard Corporation (Pabco) Product Information, p. 3
26. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Fibreboard Corporation (Pabco) Product Information, p. 4
27. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Fibreboard Corporation (Pabco) Product Information, p. 5
28. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Fibreboard Corporation (Pabco) Product Information, p. 6

Asbestos trust

If you or a family member worked with or around Fibreboard Corporation's asbestos products and later developed mesothelioma or another asbestos disease, a claim may be paid by the Owens Corning/Fibreboard asbestos trust (Fibreboard subfund). Free case review.

Asbestos products

35 products our documents name Fibreboard 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 Fibreboard Corporation ran.

• Pabco Products, Inc. / Fibreboard Corp. plant at Emeryville, California

Court cases

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

• Robichaux v. Huntington Ingalls Inc. (2023)
• Collins v. Plant Insulation Company (2010)
• Roberts v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp. (2004)
• Boldini v. Owens Corning (2001)
• Carroll v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp. (2000)
• Porter Hayden Company v. Wyche (1999)
• Ortiz v. Fibreboard Corp. (1999)
• Harder v. ACandS (1999)
• Greenleaf v. Garlock, Inc. (1999)
• Asbestos v. Bordelon, Inc. (1998)
• Cimino v. Raymark Industries, Inc. (1998)
• Harder v. ACandS, Inc. (1998)
• In re Asbestos Litigation (1998)
• Potter v. Patterson (1997)
• Hansen v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp. (1996)
• Nelson v. Keene Corp. (1996)
• Viereck v. Fibreboard Corp. (1996)
• Armstrong World Industries v. Aetna Cas. & Sur. (1996)
• Simmons v. Pacor, Inc. (1996)
• Brewer v. Fibreboard Corp. (1995)
• Perrin v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp. (1994)
• Costa v. Dresser Industries, Inc. (1994)
• Keystone Steel and Wire Co. v. Costa (1994)
• Busfield v. AC & S., Inc. (1994)
• DiDio v. Philadelphia Asbestos Corp. (1994)
• Tabolt v. Flintkote Co. (In re New York Asbestos Litigation, 1994)
• Coates v. AC and S, Inc. (1994)
• Krivanek v. Fibreboard Corp. (1993)
• Srite v. Owens-Illinois, Inc. (1993)
• Giffear v. Johns-Manville Corp. (1993)
• Higginbotham v. Fibreboard Corp. (1993)
• Watkins v. Fibreboard Corp. (1993)
• Jackson v. Anchor Packing Co. (1993)
• Dempsey v. Pacor, Inc. (1993)
• Fibreboard Corp. v. Fenton (1993)
• Taliferro v. Johns-Manville Corp. (1992)
• Bowers v. Fibreboard Corporation (1992)
• Feldman v. Owens-Illinois (In re Brooklyn Navy Yard Asbestos Litigation, 1992)
• Fenton v. Fibreboard Corp. (1991)
• Hagen v. Celotex Corp. (1991)
• Lilley v. Johns-Manville Corp. (1991)
• Fibreboard Corp. v. Pool (1991)
• Sawyer v. Fibreboard Corp. (In re Hawaii Federal Asbestos Cases, 1991)
• Cimino v. Raymark Industries, Inc. (1990)
• Hoffman v. Allied Corp. (1990)
• White v. Celotex Corp. (1990)
• Cimino v. Raymark Industries, Inc. (1990)
• Leng v. Celotex Corp. (1990)
• Kraciun v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp. (1990)
• In re Fibreboard Corp. (1990)
• Roller v. Basic Const. Co. (1989)
• IN the Matter of Estate OF Foster (1989)
• Menne v. Celotex Corp. (1989)
• District of Columbia v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corporation (1989)
• Sofie v. Fibreboard Corp. (1989)
• Kaiser v. Armstrong World Industries, Inc. (1989)
• Fisher v. Owens-Corning Fiberglass Corp. (1989)
• Pecorino v. Raymark Industries, Inc. (1988)
• Whatley v. Armstrong World Industries, Inc. (1988)
• Menne v. Celotex Corp. (1988)
• Marshall v. Celotex Corp. (1988)
• Hardy v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1988)
• Blazek v. Nicolet, Inc. (1988)
• Knox v. AC & S, Inc. (1988)
• Brisboy v. Fibreboard Corp. (1988)
• Goldman v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1987)
• Case v. Fibreboard Corp. (1987)
• In re Asbestos Litigation (1987)
• Marshall v. Celotex Corp. (1987)
• Marshall v. Celotex Corp. (1987)
• Rice v. Armstrong World Industries, Inc. (1987)
• Marshall v. Celotex Corp. (1987)
• Larson v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1986)
• Menne v. Celotex Corp. (1986)
• Morgan v. Johns-Manville Corp. (1986)
• In re Moorenovich (1986)
• Jenkins v. Raymark Industries, Inc. (1986)
• Kaminski v. Western MacArthur Co. (1985)
• Graffagnino v. Fibreboard Corp. (1985)
• Dartez v. Fibreboard Corp. (1985)
• Celotex Corp. v. Copeland (1985)
• Gideon v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1985)
• Lowe v. Johns-Manville Corp. (1985)
• Larson v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1985)
• Adams v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1984)
• Belton v. Fibreboard Corp. (1984)
• Doe v. Johns-Manville Corp. (1984)
• Froud v. Celotex Corp. (1983)
• Nutt v. AC & S., Inc. (1983)
• Wedgeworth v. Fibreboard Corp. (1983)
• Staiano v. Johns-Manville Corp. (1982)
• Wilson v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1982)
• Hardy v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1982)
• Froud v. Celotex Corporation (1982)
• Hardy v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1981)
• McCarty v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1980)
• Migues v. Nicolet Industries, Inc. (1980)
• Nolan v. Johns-Manville Asbestos & Magnesia Materials Co. (1979)

In our library

1 document in our library name Fibreboard Corporation, by collection.

JM Knowledge Chronology (1)

• R. A. Beck of Fibreboard to R. G. Anderson on the Denial of Rehearing in Borel (1974) (publisher)

In the Union Carbide documents

Fibreboard Corporation is named in 8 Union Carbide documents dated 1983 to 2001 (8 mentioned), from asbestos lawsuits over Union Carbide's Calidria asbestos. 7 of them are published in our collection.

• Summonses and Amended Complaints in Partain v. North Bros. Co. et al. and Cooper v. North Bros. Co. et al., Naming Union Carbide as Defendant (1983) UC-1411 (mentioned)
• Deposition of Douglas Merrill (Kelly-Moore/PACO) on Asbestos Fiber Suppliers, Warnings and Products, Fairl v. Western MacArthur Co. (1984) UC-5164 (mentioned)
• Defendants' List of Potential Deposition and Trial Testimony, Moake v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp., Brazoria County, Texas (2000) UC-1660 (mentioned)
• Defendants' Exhibit List with General Exhibit List in Villarreal v. GAF Corporation Holdings, Inc., et al., Cameron County, Texas (2001) UC-2009 (mentioned)
• Defendants' List of Potential Deposition and Trial Testimony in Villarreal v. GAF Corporation Holdings, Inc., et al. (2001) UC-2007 (mentioned)
• Robert L. Bockstahler Deposition Excerpts on Eagle-Picher Asbestos Insulation Products and Fiber Suppliers (1984-1985) UC-4913 (mentioned)
• Union Carbide's Responses to Plaintiffs' Set No. 46 Interrogatories on Asbestos Exports and Imports at the Ports of Stockton and Sacramento (undated) UC-5327 (mentioned)

Names in the documents

The spellings documents use for Fibreboard Corporation, OCR misreadings included, so a search for any of them finds this page: Fibreboard · Fibreboard Corp.

Where this comes from

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