Deposition of John C. Capitolo in Johns-Manville Sales Corp. v. United States, Excerpts (1984)

Ten pages of excerpts from the deposition of John C. Capitolo, a former Johns-Manville territorial salesman, taken on December 6, 1984, in Johns-Manville Sales Corporation v. United States (No. 81-4561-RFP). Capitolo testified that he sold packings and other products, "a few" of them asbestos-containing, at Hunter's Point shipyard, and that from the late 1960s until about 1972 or 1973 he visited Mare Island Naval Shipyard about three times a year, leaving J-M catalogs with planners, storekeepers and shop foremen so they would know which J-M products met their specifications. He said discussing health problems was not part of his job as a sales representative.

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. Capitolo's answers show J-M salesmen putting catalogs in the hands of shipyard planners and shop foremen, people close to the work, and describing the products as meeting federal specifications. One question refers to "the health hazards-related bulletin that you said you received in mid-1960"; he did not know whether other district managers received it. His earlier testimony about that bulletin is not in these excerpts.