Document ZBDoB7wKnz1LD1p0ovmzpgj3O

FILE NAME Cape Asbestos CAPE DATE 1984 Nov 28 DOC CAPE174 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION Confidential Memo from S. Milwid Re Deposition of Geoffrey Higam Legal - Tibbs Case Exhibit 72 ELECTRONICALLY CONFIDENTIAL AND WORK PRODUCT MEMORANDUM Evan Burkholder November 28 1984 Stephen A. Milwid Deposition of Geoffrey A. Higham I reviewed the Abstract of the Deposition A. Higham that Walter took in London England and I make the following comments of Geoffrey wish to Throughout the deposition reference was made to statements contained in Cape Asbestos Annual Reports starting with the report for 1973 pp 42 - 45 These reports stated with reference to the Tyler Texas litigation that the actions were being strenuously contested and in the opinion of the Cape's American legal advisors the amounts claimed were highly speculative and conjectural and had no basis in law or in fact Mr. Higham identified our firm as the American legal advisors and stated that the person he dealt with was myself I can recall no direct dealings with Mr. Higham with respect to the contents of the notes in the Annual Reports Tony Penna the Group Solicitor for the Cape Companies was the person with whom I dealt Our opinion was based primarily of lack of jurisdiction over the person of the on the defense Cape Companies as the law on that subject existed at that time and a defense that we continued to assert in all pleadings even after the trial court overruled the jurisdiction motions See draft of an Affidavit that I recently prepared and forwarded to Penna for use in the Tyler II proceedings pending in the High Court of England ELCTRONIALY FILED - 2023 12:30 PM - RIC-HLAND COMON PLEAS PLEAS - 203CP41759 At page 47 Mr. Higham testified as to the Minutes of a Cape Board meeting on November 1 1977 dealing with the settlement of the Tyler I cases in which it was indicated that the settlement was made on the basis of legal advice from the ECTRONIALY FILED - United States and the United Kingdom In that connection the total settlement was 20,000,000 to which Cape Industries 2023 Oct contributed 1,000,000 and the insurers for North American Asbestos contributed 4,200,000 The person with whom I dealt at Cape Industries in September 1977 as to such authorization 18 was Dr. Richard Gaze The primary factor that was considered 12:30 in authorizing the payment of 1 million on behalf of Cape 12:30 PM Industries was that the other defendants including the insurers of NAAC indicated that they were prepared to settle - separately with the 407 plaintiffs and would seek indemnity from the Cape Companies and that the plaintiffs attorneys RICHLAND would proceed separately to trial against the Cape Companies as the sole remaining defendants Dr. Gaze and I took into consideration the exposures that were involved primarily with - the expense of such further litigation as well as the risk of being the sole defendants appearing before a Texas jury with 407 Texan plaintiffs COMON Mr. Higham's statement at page 53 that he had no PLEAS recollection of the discussion that gave rise to the proposal that NAAC be wound should be helpful in the subsequent - deposition of Max Meyer At page 54 he referred to the Board Minutes as saying that the reason for winding up NAAC was that the selling arrangement for asbestos in the U.S. would be more closely controlled from South Africa and at pp 73 - 76 this was tied into the formation of Associated Mineral Corporation 203CP41759 of Liechtenstein and its agreement with Continental Products Corporation of Chicago since as he stated at page 74 the reason behind it was that some countries do not like doing business with South Africa and it is necessary for them to make arrangements and at page 76 he gave the further reason that through Associated Mineral Corporation Cape would have another subsidiary as a selling outlet in various areas of the world At pp 62 and following Walker questioned Mr. Higham as to the source of in his recommendation to the Board that Cape would not appear and defend product liability litigation in the U.S. He stated that the basis for that recommendation to Board U.S. and would have been legal advice received the U.K. suggesting that as being the both best in the course CAPE000618 ECTRONIALY FILED actiactioon n for the company At pp 64 -65 he stated that the - for source for for the legal advice from the U.S. would be Lord Bissell Brook I know of no basis for that conclusion by Mr. Higham 2023 Oct After the Tyler I conversation with litigation Tony Penna was settled I recall a in which he stated that telephone based on the advices of Cape's U.K. solicitors Cape would not appear 18 in any subsequent U.S. product liability litigation and would 12:30 resist in the U.K. any endeavors to collect any default judgments 12:30 that might be entered in the U. S. I also recall that even PM as early as 1975 Mr. Penna advised that attorneys representing - EGNEP in South Africa had already given the same advice RICHLAND At page 67 Mr. Higham testified that he met very rarely with Max Meyer and did not meet him more than once a year I met him only once in August 1977 in London just - prior to the scheduled commencement of the trial in Tyler COMON Texas We certainly had no participation in the negotiations that commenced some time in 1976 pp 68 - 73 with Transvaal PLEAS Consolidated Land TCL dealing with the sale of the Cape mining properties in South Africa Mr. Higham testified at - page 71 that Cape made it very plain to TCL that the Cape was not responding to any product liability claims in the U.S. On the whole from my review of this Abstract it does not appear that Walker in the 89 pages of the deposition 203CP41759 uncovered very much particularly pertaining to the decision for the dissolution of NAAC Stephen A. Milwid SAM CAPE000619