Johns-Manville Case

Asbestos industry in the United States of America was long dominated by Johns-Manville Corporation. They fabricated asbestos for multiple uses primarily in construction and maritime industries. The first asbestos exposure litigation filed was against Johns-Manville in 1929. This was filed in the federal court in Newark, NJ and the context of the litigation was that the employee was being denied a safe working environment at the company’s New Jersey plant. Between the years 1929 – 1933, 11 lawsuits were filed against Johns-Manville and they were all settled for approximately $30,000. The first modern era lawsuit was filed by Claude Tomplait in 1966. At the time, Tomplait’s lawsuit was against eleven manufacturers of asbestos containing insulation products, but the defendants won that case. However, another suit was filed by Tomplait’s co-worker, Clarence Borel [19] in 1969. Generally, employees who have decided to sue their employers usually have to depend on worker’s compensation claims for asbestos related injuries, [20] but Borel and his prosecutors argued that the manufacturing companies should not be shielded away from fraud and intentionally endangering the lives of their employers. With this argument, they were able to file liability lawsuits against their employers and the original manufacturers of the asbestos

[28] Although the usage of asbestos has substantially decreased since the 1970s and potentially terminated by 1980, more additional claims were filed and are still being filed today. According to Carroll et al. (2002), “It is estimated that another million claims will be filed and that the total cost to settle them all will reach $300 billion unless Congress takes belated action to somehow reduce the