Document 2j624ONdmbdLB61NYYV0n5DVb

FILE NAME DuPont DUP DATE 1987 Mar 11 DOC DUP178 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION Legal - Deposition of Vincent Gallagher Page Line Vincent Gallagher Deposition 5/21/92 Aldr v i Apd p Pgowe er PAARITTERIDUPONT And SUPERIOR COURT LAW DIVISION : DOCKET NO Colsolidated Du OF NEW JERSEY CAMDEN COUNTY 27251-79 Pont Asbestos Cases WILLIAM B. et als MILLISON Plaintiffs vs. E. I. du PONT & COMPANY et de NEMOURS als DEPOSTIION OF VINCENT A. GALLAGHER JR ______ Defendants TRANSCRIPT of the stenographic notes of the proceedings in the entitled action as taken by and before JACQUELINE KASHMER a Certified Shorthand Reporter and Notary Public of the State of New Jersey at the offices of Tomar Seliger Simonoff Adourian & O'Brien 41 South Haddon Avenue Haddonfield New Jersey on Wednesday March 11 1987 commencing at 10:15 a.m. APPEARANCES APPEARANCES TOMAR SELIGER SIMONOFF ADOURIAN & O'BRIEN Attorneys for the Plaintiffs BY JOSHUA M. SPIELBERG ESQ CAPENTER BENNETT & MORRISSEY Attorneys for the Defendant Du BY ROSEMARY ALITO ESQ Pont MCCARTER & ENGLISH Attorneys for the Defendant BY MICHAEL BENSON ESQ Wellington COURT REPORTING SERVICES 799 Bloomfield Avenue Verona N.J. 07044 201 239-7997 INDEX WITNESS DIRECT CROSS REDIRECT RECROSS GALAL . A GALG LAH GHEE R JR R By Ms. Alito 2 71 Mr. Benson 57 Gallagher 1 Gallagher 2 EXHIBITS Citation Citation IDENT 9 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18. 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 VINCENT A. GALLAGHER J R. called as a witness in behalf of the Defendants Du Pont Neeld Reichwein and Smulkstys having been first duly sworn testified as follows DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MS ALITO Q Good morning Mr. Gallagher A Good morning My name is Rosemary Alito and I'm an attorney for E. I. du Pont de Nemours Company and three of its plant physicians Drs Neeld Reichwein and Smulkstys Have you ever been deposed before A Yes Q So I will be very brief in my instructions to you I'm going to ask you a series of questions which the court reporter will be taking down and later on will be typed up in a transcript form Your testimony here today can be used for a variety of purposes including for some purposes at trial of these cases If you don't understand a question that I ask you please let me know and I'll try and rephrase it more clearly If you want to take a break at any time let me know and we'll stop the proceedings and you can take a break Court Reporting Services Gallagher - Direct 3 Are you presently employed A Yes ma'am Q And by whom A Myself I'm employed a Q Now I'm going to go through hopefully very briefly your employment history Are you a college graduate A Yes ma'am Q And when did you graduate from college 10 A 1964 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Q And what was your degree in A Economics B.A. in economics Q Any advanced degrees A I have an M.A. in occupational safety and health from the Center for Safety at New York University Q Anything beyond that A I have continuing education credits but no other degrees Q Any certifications in the area of occupational health 21 A I was certified in 1978 as a certified hazard 22 control manager but that's the only certification 23 Prior to being employed by whom were 24 you employed 25 A The U.S. Department of Labor OSHA 1 = Court Reporting Services we' 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 4 24 | 25 at Gallagher - Direct MS ALITO Could you mark this as exhibit Gallagher 1 Exhibit D- Gallagher 1 is marked f^,r identification Q Mr. Gallagher I'm going to show you a document that's been marked by the court reporter as Exhibit Gallagher 1 and ask you if that is the citation that you referred to A Yes it is MS ALITO If you could mark this as Gallagher 2 Exhibit Gallagher 2 is marked for identification Mr. Gallagher this exhibit marked as Gallagher 2 appears to be a separate citation during the same time period and I'd ask you if you also reviewed that in preparation for today's deposition A I don't think I did but I have just reviewed it now It brings back memories Q OK Thank you Mr. Gallagher did there come a time as a part of your job duties as a safety specialist at OSHA that you came to take action with respect to Du Pont A Yes ma'am 0 Can you tell me when that was Court Reporting Services Gallagher - Direct 11 Q And can you tell me what you did ' A We asked to meet with the highest management representative and we asked to meet with the union president to inform them that we were there to make a complaint investigation or inspection Q And did you do that A Yes ma'am Do you recall who it was that you met with from management and the union 10 A I don't remember the plant manager that we met 11 with 12 Q Do you think it was the plant manager I 13 know we're going back in time and one of the 14 instructions that I should have additionally given is 15 that I don't want you to guess neither Mr. Spielberg 16 nor I. Give us your best recollection but if you 17 don't remember something don't hesitate to let me gd 18 know Do you think it was the plant manager that you 19 met with item 20 A I don't remember specifically who the gentleman emt 21 was = 22 OK And from the union do you recall who leet 23 that was 24 A It was Dave Watson | emg president 25 Q Was he the of the union at that Sovwmeng Reman Court Reporting Services Gallagher - Direct 16 A What I remember doing if I remember correctly it was on a Friday afternoon we were there and I remember that we did not do field evaluations that day Q And then you spoke to Mr. Watson who said what A He said that we have a lagger whose daughter is a respiratory therapist and she claimed that she could hear crackles in his lung and she advised her father Clarence Schwebel to see a pulmonary specialist That 10 was after Mr. Schwebel was told ~~ that is according to 11 Mr. Watson -- Mr. Schwebel had been told by the company 12 doctor that his lung problem is not related to his job 13 or exposure to asbestos dust 14 Q So Mr. Watson told you what Mr. Schwebel 15 told him that one of the plant doctors at Du Pont told 16 Mr. Schwebel 17 A Right He also as union president was saying 18 that this was a question that OSHA should look into 19 Q OK Did you take any action in response 20 to that complaint from the union president 21 A Nothing other than to consider it as a worker 22 complaint and then it was decided to investigate it at 23 a further date 24 -- How was the decision made to investigate a 25 worker complaint whether or not to investigate it or Court Reporting Services 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Gallagher - Direct 17 not Do you make that decision ' A Yes on occasions At that time within the policy of OSHA would be to consider expanding the scope of the inspection to worker complaints particularly from the president of the union o When did you make that decision if you remember MR SPIELBERG You're talking about the decision to investigate this complaint -- MS ALITO Yes MR SPIELBERG -- related to Clarence Schwebel MS ALITO Yes A I decided as soon as I heard Mr. Watson say there was another question of causal relationship and recording of injury or disease Q OK And how did you proceed with that investigation A We returned to the office and made plans for further investigation Q OK And what was the first step that you took in that investigation A I forget exactly what the day events of the investigation were I know generally what we did Q Well tell me as well as you can remember Court Reporting Services Gallagher - Direct 18 how you proceeded chronologically in investigating this complaint A I won't be able to tell you chronologically but I know that we began if I remember correctly by interviewing other laggers and either taking statements or work histories from them if I remember correctly approximately ten other laggers who had more than 20 years experience working as a lagger Q OK And what types of questions would you 10 ask those men 11 A One of the primary questions was have you ever 12 used the wet method when you remove insulation which 13 contains asbestos 14 Q Any other areas you covered with them 15 besides safety procedures or the lack thereof in the 16 performance of their job duties 17 A I remember at one point there was a question of 18 whether laggers were able to determine whether they 19 were working with asbestos insulation or insulation 22 which didn't contain asbestos and I investigated to 22 determine whether they were competent to tell the 22 difference between the two 23 Q OR How did you investigate that 24 A We asked laggers to identify asbestos or -- 25 excuse me -- insulation which contained asbestos and Court Reporting Services