Deposition of James F. Gilkinson in Johns-Manville v. United States, Excerpts (1984)

Seven pages of excerpts from the deposition of James F. Gilkinson, a former Johns-Manville salesman and technical service representative, taken in San Francisco on December 4, 1984, in Johns-Manville's suits against the United States in the U.S. Claims Court and the federal court in San Francisco. Gilkinson testified that on trips to Mare Island Naval Shipyard, alone or with other J-M and Western Asbestos salesmen, he met engineers and purchasing staff to promote J-M products, including Thermobestos pipe insulation, and left literature, mostly with the engineers. He did not recall whether the literature, which he described as product information sheets on sizes and types, carried any health warnings.

What it shows

The case was one of Johns-Manville's suits against the United States (No. C81-4561 in the federal court in San Francisco and Nos. 465-83C, 1-84C and 688-83C in the U.S. Claims Court), in which J-M sought to make the government share the cost of asbestos claims by shipyard workers. Asked when he first became aware that breathing asbestos fibers could cause asbestosis, Gilkinson answered "1975," though he had sold J-M insulation until September 1970.