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Correspondence and papers (chiefly papers) relating to the South African law suit against Cape Asbestos.

Includes papers of BAMCWU, the Black Allied Mining and Construction Workers’ Union, which organised workers in the Penge mine in the Sekhukhune District, South Africa. Also includes a photocopy of extract from Union of South Africa, Department of Mines and Industries 'Annual report of the Government Mining Engineer for the calendar year ended 31 December 1915'.

Set of exhibits, marked and annotated. Includes:

• civil subpoena of Max E Meyer in Delora Stewart et al. / Geneva Eileen Mau et al., both v. NAAC, 1987
• reponse to request to admit in Delora Stewart et al. v. NAAC (8 January 1987), Circuit Court of the Eleventh Circuit, McLean County, Illinois
• answers to interrogatories in Dorothy Betts et al. v. Unarco Industries et al. (1985), Circuit Court of the Eleventh Circuit, McLean County, Illinois
• Cape Asbestos correspondence 1954-1985, including between Richard Gaze (the company's chief scientist), company solicitors, additional legal support (Davis, Arnold & Cooper Solicitors, London; Lord Bissell & Brook, Chicago). See also Gaze deposition at FLYNN/2/3/3

• coroner's report on Edwin W Holland, d. 2 April 1985 (plaintiff’s exhibit)

NAAC correspondence, as follows:

• 1974-1976 (chiefly between Joan Holtze, NAAC, and J L Sparks, Group Financial Controller of Cape Industries Ltd, London)
• 1969-1973 (chiefly from and to Charles G Morgan / Joan Holtze (both NAAC) and representatives of Cape Asbestos in the UK, South Africa and subsidiaries elsewhere)
• 1962-1968: correspondence of Robert E Cryor including minutes of shareholder meetings and meetings of company directors

Correspondence and papers on asbestos in South Africa, including compensation claims against Cape plc by South African workers. Includes:

• photographs of demonstration
• press cuttings
• Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) leaflets and newsletters

• Plaintiff’s memorandum of law (in re asbestos personal injury cases, Arrington Lead No 93-9-114 et al.) in opposition to Charter’s motion to dismiss the second amended complaint for lack of personal jurisdiction, submitted by Hayden S Dent, 6 December 1995, in the Circuit Court of Jones County, Mississippi, Second Judicial District

Argues among other things that at all times Charter and its predecessor Central Mining controlled Cape's mining operations in South Africa and that therefore the corporate distinction between the two companies should be disregarded and Charter should assume Cape's contacts with the State of Mississippi. Further, that the Court should disregard the corporate veil between Cape and Charter because Cape had introduced into the marketplace a product which it knew would be dangeous to the end user. Etc.

Correspondence with John Pickering & Partners LLP, organised by topic:

• shipping
• compensation (including re compensation bill 2005)
• Cape plc (re group action against the company on behalf of South African miners)
• fibre counts
• the Fairchild judgement
• Association of British Insurers (ABI); includes copy of ABI's ‘Guidelines for apportioning and handling employers liability mesothelioma claims’ (2003)
• restructuring of Zurich Insurance Company
• T&N, including correspondence with the administrators of T&N

Correspondence with Members of Parliament, in alphabetical order by surname. With a listing of MPs (dated 2002) at the front of the file.

Covers a wide range of topics including

• Parliamentary Questions (PQs) relating to occupational and environmental health & safety, DHSS/DSS policies, DHSS/DSS procedures, DHSS/DSS leaflets and DHSS/DSS shortcomings
• Dr Kevin Browne's dual role as Cape Asbestos consultant and medical officer at DHSS medical boarding center for respiratory diseases
• constituents who happen to be also be SPAID/OEDA clients

• mainly witness statements, arranged alphabetically by name of employer, occasionally also by surname of client or type of business (“dockyard”)
• occasionally particulars of claim

Named employers / insurers include: British Cellophane Ltd, British Insulated Calender Cables (BICC), British Telecommunications plc, Cape plc, Central Insulated Ltd, Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB), Ellistown Colliery, Ford Motor Company, R B Hilton Ltd, Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), North Thames Gas, C A Parsons, Powergen Ltd, Rank Xerox, Redpath Brown, RTZ Estates Ltd, E A & H Sandford (Insulations) Ltd, etc.

Front matter includes guidelines for witness statements (‘Information which solicitors will require from colleagues’).

Correspondence and papers relating to Nancy Tait's campaign to question Dr Kevin Browne's suitability as Medical Officer of the Department of Health and Social Security, whilst serving at the same time as medical consultant for Cape Industries. In reverse chronological order. In Tait's own words (20 September 1994), she had "waged war on Kevin Browne's appointment since 1987". Includes:

• correspondence (in particular with MP Frank Dobson), press statements, newspaper articles, Parliamentary Questions, 1986-1988
• correspondence with Kevin Browne 1983

Further,

• Tait’s notes on chrysotile c.2003, listing of SPAID/OEDA lung cancer cases
• copy of Browne’s presentation ‘Differences in asbestos fibre types’, presented at the International Conference on Chrysotile Asbestos Cement Products, New Delhi, 10-11 November 2003
• correspondence re K Browne 1987-1995, including re his deposition in Chase Manhattan Bank v. T&N plc et al., United States District Court, Southern District of New York [1994]; see link below
• copy of Cape Industry advertisement for a Group Medical Advisor, in British Medical Journal, October 1977
• copies of scientific publications relating to asbestos induced diseases 1977-1994

Research papers of Geoffrey Tweedale gathered during the course of his research for his book 'Magic mineral to killer dust: Turner & Newall and the asbestos hazard' (2nd edition, 2001: Oxford University Press), which investigated the British company, Turner & Newall, one of the world's leading asbestos manufacturers.

The collection comprises:

• Copies of more or less complete run of Turner & Newall compensation cases, 1921-1990s (c. 700 files). The copies were made by Tweedale from microfilms of the Turner & Newall company archives made by Chase Manhattan Bank in 1991 as part of a court case initiated in the USA by the Bank against Turner & Newall. Tweedale made a special study of these case files.
• Series of subject files. The bulk of the contents is copies of correspondence and papers from the Turner & Newall archives. However, the series also contains material from other sources as well as Tweedale’s own notes and correspondence. Most of the material relates to Turner & Newall, but there is also material on other companies eg Johns Manville in the USA, Eternit, and Cape Asbestos as well as material on Canada, South Africa, and Australia. The series also includes biographical information on related people as well as press cuttings collected by Tweedale.
• A selection of videotapes and DVDs mostly relating to Turner & Newall plus several transcripts of TV/radio programmes, dating back to the 1970s and early 1980s.

Communications and documentation obtained chiefly through contacts with American litigators whose clients included victims of asbestos-related disease. First among these litigators was James Walker of Walker & Wylder, Bloomington, Illinois, whose correspondence and document exchange with Flynn started c.1982.

Cape's North American subsidiaries included:

• North American Asbestos Corporation (NAAC)
• Union Asbestos & Rubber Company (Unarco)
• PPG Industries Inc.

Microfiches of company registration documents.

Also photocopies of the following:

• successive versions of Memorandum and Articles of Association, Cape Asbestos Company Ltd / Cape Industries Ltd
• Memorandum and Articles of Association, Cape Industries Overseas Ltd
• particulars of Directors and Secretaries, notifications of changes
• certificates of incorporation
• diverse company registration papers 1975-1980
• Register of Mortgages and Charges, etc. Company Search Report 1996

Flynn's listing of his personal papers on Cape Industries.

Correspondence and papers (chiefly papers) relating to the Cape Asbestos Fund. Includes successive proposals 'for a scheme of arrangement in respect of asbestos liabilities’.

Illustrated product information leaflets for Cape Asbestos products (rocksil, asbestos-fiber jointing, asbestos textiles, asbestos packings), technical information on Pierrite, and on Marinite.