33-Year-Old Asbestos Memo Sealed in Wrongful Death Case

A 33-year-old memorandum concerning asbestos risks in the pipe industry is playing an outsize role in an asbestos suit on behalf of a pipe worker who died from mesothelioma (Lee v. Certainteed Corp., E.D.N.C., 5:13-cv-00826, 3/28/16

Pipe maker J-M Manufacturing Co. convinced the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina March 28 to seal the memo even though it was disclosed in earlier asbestos litigation involving the same plaintiffs’ attorneys, Simon Greenstone, Panatier, Bartlett in Dallas.

The earlier suits are Paulus v. Crane Co., Cal. Super. Ct., No. B246505 (2014) andMcIntyre v. 3M ...