Document bL1b65XGVJ7aLxY85w1mgxy0

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT THIRD JUDICIAL CIRCUIT OP ILLINOIS MADISON COUNTY RICHARD G. LOWE, et al, PLaintlffs , -vsNORFOLK AND WESTERN RAILWAY COMPANY, a Corporation, et al, Defendants No,, 79-L-810 Discovery deposition of Robert C. Isham taken on behalf of the Plaintiffs ******** Reporters James W. May J am es M ay R epo r tin g S e r v ic e CERTIFIED SH O R TH A N D REPORTERS R.R. 2 - BOX 65 EDWARDSVILLE, ILLINOIS 62025 1 IN THE CIRCUIT COURT THIRD JUDICIAL CIRCUIT OF ILLINOIS 2 MADISON COUNTY 3 RICHARD G. LOWE, et al, ) 4 5 -vs- 6 Plaintiffs, ) ) ) No. 79-L-810 \ NORFOLK AND WESTERN RAILWAY 7 COMPANY, a Corporation, et al, ) \ 8 Defendants. ) 9 10 - 11 APPEARANCES: 12 Paul L. Pratt, Esq. For the Plaintiffs 13 Messrs. Schoenbeck, Tucker For Defendant 14 & Schoenbeck Norfolk & Western by Robert Tucker, Esq. Railway Company 15 Messrs. Burroughs, Simpson, 16 Wilson, Hepler, Broom & McCarthy - 17 by Robert Wilson, Esq. For Defendant GATX Messrs. Roberts & Heneghan For Defendant Dresser 18 by Patrick S. O'Brien, Esq. Industries, Inc. 19 Messrs. Coburn, Croft, 20 & Putzell For Defendant by Richard Cornfeld, Esq. Monsanto Company 21 * 22 23 IT IS STIPULATED AND AGREED by and 24 between counsel for plaintiffs and counsel for 25 defendants that the deposition of ROBERT C. ISHAM may JAM ES MAY R E P O R T IN G S ER V IC E 1 1 be taken for discovery purposes by and on behalf of 2 the Illinois Civil Practice Act as amended/ and the 3 provisions of the Supreme Court .Rules pertaining to 4 depositions taken for discovery on October 5, 1981, 5 at the law offices of Messrs Coburn, Croft and Putzell, 6 One Mercantile Center, St. Louis, Missouri, before 7 JAMES W. MAY, a Notary Public within and for the County 8 of Madison, State of Illinois; that the issuance of 9 notice and dedimus is waived, and that this deposition 10 may be taken with the same force and effect as if all 11 statutory requirements had been complied with. 12 IT IS FURTHER STIPULATED AND AGREED that 13 any and all objections to all or any part of this 14 deposition are hereby reserved and may be raised on 15 the trial of this cause. 16 * * * * * * * * 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 ROBERT C. ISHAM 24 produced, sworn and examined on behalf of the 25 plaintiffs, deposes and says as follows: JAM ES MAY R E P O R TIN G S ER V IC E CROSS EXAMINATION BV MR. PRATT: Q Mr. Isham, my name Is Paul Pratt. I represent some railroad employees. And they claim to have been injured as a result of that Sturgeon spill. Your name has shown up in some of the documents or something of that nature, indicating that you may know something about the chemical or something of that nature. So I am going to ask you some questions about it. And if you don't understand my question, you let me know and I will try to make it a little clearer, okay? And we have found' probably the best way to do this, I will just start out with your name, address, when y o u .graduated from high school, run through your educational and your work background, okay? A I understand. Q Tell us your name please. r A Robert C. Ishara. Q And where do you live, sir? A 253 Heather Crest Drive, Chesterfield, Missouri, 63017. Q And how old a man are you? A I am forty-two years old. JA M ES MAY R E P O R T IN G S E R V IC E . 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Q What year did you graduate from high school? A 1957. Q Following that did you go to school? A Yes. X went to Penn State. Q Okay. Where is that located? A That is located in State College, Pennsylvania. Q Did you go four years there? A Yes. I got a degree in business psychology, Bachelor of Science. Q Did you take any chemistry courses there? A No, I did not in college. Q You graduated then what, '61? A That is correct. Q What did you do after that? A I joined the Coast Guard.and was in the Coast Guard for three and a half years. After* which I joined Monsanto in 1965. Q What did you do in the Coast Guard? A I was a commissioned officer, ending up as a classification officer in Cape May, New Jersey which is the largest of the receiving centers of the Coast Guard. Q Then you joined -- have you done any JAMES MAY REPO RTING SERVICE A 1 graduate work? 2 A No, X have not. 3 Q Okay. You joined Monsanto in '65? 4 A Yes, I did. 5 Q Okay. And what was your first position with Monsanto? 7 A X was a copywriteri 8 .Q Copywriter. Tell me what a copywriter 9 does. 10 A A copywriter is a training level position 11 in which I wrote copy for publications such as the 12 Corporate Products catalog, corporate exhibits, and 13 then I filled in for administration that were off on 14 business. It was a training position that lasted 15 approximately nine months. 16 Q All right. What position did you get 17 after that? -'* 18 A Prom there I went in to being a 19 supervisor of chemicals advertising. That lasted 20 until 1967. 21 Q And what did that involve*, advertise 22 ments in newspapers, magazines and stuff like that, 23 of certain products that you sell? 24 A In the parts of the chemical operation 25 that I worked in, most of the advertising is promoting JA M E S M AY R E P O R TIN G S ER V IC E 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 - 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 our products to other businesses rather than consumers. So X would have been involved in trade, shows, direct mail and magazine advertising in trade magazines rather than newspapers dr consumer magazines Q You did that until *67, right? A Yes* Q Okay. And what did you do then? A Then I went into advertising research. And became manager of advertising research for the corporation. And in that job I was involved in public opinion research, pretesting and posttesting of advertising campaigns and attitudinal research. Q What is attitudinal research? A Attitudinal research is measuring the attitudes of key important publics of Monsanto. Q Publics. What do you mean by publics? A That would include the -.general public, business, customers and prospects, financial community. Q How long did you have that job? A To approximately 1969. Q What did you do then? A Then I became manager of chemicals and plastics advertising. Q And what were your responsibilities in JA M ES MAY R E PO R TIN G S E R V IC E that job? A They were the same as the previous job in chemical advertising except they added on plastics and packaging to my responsibilities. Q Okay. How long did you have that position? A Until 1971. Q And what did you do then? A In 1971, we had a reorganization. And I was named director of advertising for the Monsanto Industrial Chemicals Company. One of the six operat ing units of Monsanto. ' Q And what was your responsibilities in that job? A They were to manage all theadvertising and sales promotion for that particular area of the company. Q Okay. How long did you-have that position? A I am still in that position except in 1977, they added public relations into my department. Q And what is your title again now? Director of what? A Today I am director of advertising i and public relations for the Monsanto Industrial Chemicals Company. JA M ES MAY R E P O R TIN G S E R V IC E 1 .Q Monsanto Industrial? 2 A Chemicals Company. 3 Q And I take it all of yourwork has been 4 out at World Headquarters? 5 A Yes, it has. Q Well, I could say what the hell are you 7 doing here. Did you do any public relations work, I 8 guess you would have to call it, and I am sure you 9 didn't do any advertising on this Monsanto spill or on 10 this Sturgeon spill. Were you involved in any public 11 relations work on the Monsanto spill? 12 A Yes. 13 Q The Sturgeon spill rather? 14 A Yes. I handled some pressqueries that 15 happened after the incident in January 1979. 1 Q Do you remember which ones those were? 17 A I believe that a number'--o pressqueries 18 were put into evidence that have my name at the bottom 19 of them. 20 MR. CORNFELD: When you say put 21 into evidence, you mean produced to Plaintiffs? 22 A Well, I mean that the lawyers came down 23 and took things out of our files and said they were 24 for a case. 25 MR. CORNFELD: Okay. JA M ES MAY R E P O R T IN G S E R V IC E 8 1 Q Take a look at Exhibits 22 through 27. 2 Your name appears. Would that be basically what you 3 are talking about? 4 A Yes. My name appears at the bottom of 5 the second group of press queries. The first group & was handled by Bob Neunreiter, who is manager of 7 public relations for the Monsanto Chemicals Inter 8 mediate Company. 9 Q He was down at Sturgeon I think one or IO two days, wasn't he? II A Yes, he ws. I saw him on TV footage. 12 Q ' Did you ever go down there? 13 A No, I have not. 14 Q You I take it know nothing aboutthe 15 chemicals that are involved technically? 16 A That's correct. 17 Q Is it standard operatingprocedure when 18 they have a spill that the public relations department 19 gets involved in this? 20 MR. CORNFELD: Objection to the 21 form of the question. Because you haven't defined 22 what you mean by standard operating procedure, and 23 you also haven't defined what you mean by get 24 involved. 25 MR. PRATT: I think he knows what JAM ES MAY R E PO R TIN G S ER V IC E 1 I am talking about. 2 MR. CORNFELD; I don't know 3 particularly what you mean by get involved. I think 4 you ought to specify how you mean that the public 5 relations department was involved. 6 MR. PRATT: Go out and do their 7 thing. 8 MR. CORNFELD: You go out and 9 answer press queries? 10 MR. PRATT: Yes. n MR. CORNFELD: Also there is no 12 foundation that the witness has ever been involved in 13 any spill like this. 14 Q Now let me ask you this. Has your 15 department ever been involved in any previous spill? 16 A Our department will occasionally 17 accompany people from the plant that -respond to any 18 sort of transportation accident. They are the ones 19 that are trying to advise officials on safety 20 procedures and what the material is and what is on the 21 label. And occasionally we will send out people 22 merely to facilitate the press in getting answers to 23 questions 24 Q That is the reason you have them out 25 there, right? JA M ES MAY R E PO R TIN G S E R V IC E * 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 / 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A Yes. Q Again then, normally does the public relations department accompany the technical people to the various spills you have had over the years, to your knowledge? .- A Very seldom do we send out any public relations people to accompany our technical people. Q How come they did here? MR. CORNFELD: Objection to the form of the question. There is no foundation that the witness was involved in the decision to send Mr. Neunreiter* MR. PRATT: He is the head-man. man? MR. CORNFELD: Who is the head public relations. MR. PRATT: The director of MR. CORNFELD: You haven't established that the witness was involved in that decision. Q Were you involved in that decision? A If I could go through the organization again, I work in the Monsanto Industrial Chemicals Company. There is another operating united called the Monsanto Chemicals Intermediate Company, of which JAMES MAY REPORTING SERVICE . 1 \2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 n 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 - Mr. John Spano and Bob Neunreiter work in that company. In the alignment of our plants, the plant Sauget, Illinois is the responsibility of the Monsanto Chemicals Intermediate Company. The product that was involved in the accident, orthochlorophenol crude, is sold by the Monsanto Industrial Chemicals Company. Q So it would have been Spano and Neunreiter's -- they would have been over that particular plant, right? A That is correct. They were responsible for the plant in Sauget, Illinois where this material was shipped from. Q All right. Are you above the scheme of corporate hierarchy, above Spano and Neunreiter, or are you lateral with them? A I would be considered on the same plane with Jolrn Spano. Q Okay. A We are both directors, functional directors. Q Then probably it would have been his decision to send Neunreiter out there? MR. CORNFELD; Objection. Objection to the form of the question. It wasn't - the witness's decision. And he didn't take part. It JAMES MAY REPORTING SERVICE 1 would just be speculation for him to say whose decision 2 it was, 3 Q Go ahead. 4 A I don't know why Bob Neunreiter was sent 5 out. 6 Q Okay. This particular chemical would 7 not come under you at all , or would not have at that 8 time, right? 9 A The chemical is sold by the operating 10 unit in which I work. It is made at a plant that 11 belongs to a different operating unit. And this is 12 not unusual for chemical plants to make so many 13 different products that they are sold by different 14 operating units 15 Q Okay. But as I understand it, you have 16 no technical expertise about the, for instance the 17 health hazards of orthochlorophenol crude or phenol 18 or dioxin or anything like that, right? 19 A I have no special expertise in that 20 area. 21 Q You are shown as, copies to. I guess 22 that is normal, right? Like on Exhibit 22, you are 23 shown as receiving a copy 24 MR. CORNFELD: What do you mean, 25 it's, normal? It's normal for what? JA M ES MAY R E P O R T IN G S E R V IC E - 1 Q Would you normally get a copy of a, for 2 instance like this preparedness Q and A, orthochloro- 3 phenol workers document which is Plaintiffs' Deposition 4 Exhibit 227 Would you be on the mailing list is what 5 I am getting at? 6 A Because it happened, the product 7 happened at one company's plant and I work in another 8 plant, that would be a courtesy to let me and let other 9 people in our company know what was going on. 10 Q Then in your field of expertise, is it n fair to say that you did no public relations work 12 concerning the Sturgeon spill? Rather Spanb and 13 Neunreiter would.have done it? 14 A In the initial period, they handled all 15 press queries and responded by sending somebody to the 16 scene After the emergency aspect was over, it 17 returned to my responsibility. Because-, the product 18 was sold by the part of the corporation that I work 19 in. 20 Q And what was your responsibility at that 21 point? 22 A The job of public relations is to assist 23 the press in getting answers to legitimate questions 24 about the product and the accident. It is to traasmit 25 -and issue information to management on what is going JAM ES MAY REPO RTING SERVICE 14 Q And also I guess to give the press accurate information because it is technical in nature you would have to consult with somebody who has the technical expertise in the company so you could tell them what the answers to the questions were, right? A That is correct. Q Okay. And how long were you involved or your department involved with public relations work concerning this spill? A From approximately one week after the spill when the, the responsibility for handling press queries was turned over to MIC, and until the first lawsuit was filed. Q Then after the lawsuit was filed, I think, what was the first lawsuit? MR. CORNFELD: I-am sorry. Q Was Siegfried the first set of lawsuits filed? MR. CORNFELD: X am not sure. It was sometime that late spring or summer; Q Once it becomes a Court case, then you folks get out of it, right? A It's our policy not to respond to something in litigation. However, the responsibility JA M E S M AY R E P O R T IN G SER VIC E .. 1 2 3 4 5 6 .. 7 8 r- 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 r 20 21 22 23 24 25 for public relations is still mine today. It's just that we don't respond to people because of company policy. MR. PRATTr Okay. X think that's all I have. MR. TUCKER: No questions. MR. WILSON: No questions. MR. O'BRIEN: No questions. MR. CORNFELD: I want to ask Mr. Isham one item, and I would like to take a short break. (Whereupon a short break was taken.) MR. CORNFELD: I have no questions. - Robert C Isham - JAM ES MAY REPO RTING SERVICE 1 STATE OF ILLINOIS) ) ss 2 COUNTY OF MADISON) 3 4 1/ JAMES W. MAY, a Notary Public within 5 and for the County of Madison, State of Illinois, do 6 hereby certify that pursuant to stipulation there 7 appeared before me on October 5, 1981, at the law 8 offices of Messrs. Coburn, Croft and Putzell, One 9 Mercantile Center, St. Louis, Missouri, ROBERT C. ISHAM, 10 who was first duly sworn by me to testify to the whole 11 truth of his knowledge touching the matter in controversy 12 aforesaid, so far as he should be interrogated concern 13 ing the same; that he was examined, and his examination 14 was taken down in shorthand by me and afterwards 15 transcribed upon the typewriter, and his deposition is 16 herewith returned. 17 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set 18 ray hand and affixed my notarial seal on this ____ _ day 19 of ___________ ________ , 1981* 20 21 22 Notary Public within and 23 for the County of Madison, in the State of Illinois. 24 25 JAM ES MAY R E PO R TIN G S ER V IC E 17