Document baY05XN30MewjnzLawYoB1OY0

CHARLES D, VICCELLIO ROBERT W CLEMENTS WILLIAM E. SHADDOCK EMMETT C. SOLE JOHN S. BRADFORD STEPHEN C. POLITQ ROBERT S, DAMPF WILLIAM B. MONK JEANNE M. SIEVERT THOMAS <3, HENNING h alan McCall BRIAN L. COOOY PAUL L. VEaZEY. JR LAW OFFICES OF STOCKWELL, SlEVERT, VICCELLIO, CLEMENTS & SHADDOCK L.L.P. ONE LAKESIDE PLAZA 7C6QI POST OFFICE SOX 2900 70602-2900 TELEPHONE Oia> A36-9-43I FAX <3!> 493-7SIO FAX 493^7209 LAKE CHARLES, LOUISIANA Sharon E, McCauley JAMES A. BLANCO H. AUBREY WHITE. Ill' ANDREW D. McGLATHERY. Ill SUSAN GAY VICCELLIO BENJAMIN J. GUILBEAU, JR RICKY L. BABIN OF COUNSEL OLIVER P STOCKWELL March 9, 1993 FRED H, SIEVERT. JR <l923H$oe) 'LL, M IN TAXATION Mr. William B. Baggett Attorney at Law 3006 Country Club Road Lake Charles, LA 70606-7820 Re: Lawrence D. Jones Versus Number 90-2128 The Aetna Casualty And Surety Company, et al (14th JDC, Calcasieu Parish, LA) Our File: 819-2053 Dear Bill: In response to several inquiries on behalf of your clients, I would like to advise you I have gone back and deter mined, after expending a great amount of time and effort, the origination of the PPG documents previously produced to you in the above captioned case. Documents NO. BB0000001-BB0000505, BB0000509-BB0000556, BB0001464-BB0001499, BB0002346-BB0002701, BB0003347-BB0004486, BB00Q4998-BB0004999, BB0005834-BB0005845, BB0011323-BB0012889, BB0013673-BB0015474 are all documents which we discovered at the local Lake Charles plant. Documents No. BB0001500-BB0002345, BB0002702-BB0002850, B30002970-BB0003346, BB0005846-BB0005874, BB0009917-BB0011322, BB0016150-BBQ016431 are all documents which were discovered at corporate in Pittsburgh. Documents No. BB0000557-BB0000583, BB0000585-BB0001463, BB0002851-BB0002969, BB0005000-BB0005833, BB0005875-BB0009916, BB0012890-BB0013672, BBOO18000-BB0025004 are documents which were never located at PPG. These documents Were located in the files of outside counsel for PPG. These documents were produced by parties other than PPG in other litigation in which PPG has been a party. PPG cannot verify or ay&kenticatefthese documents. We believed that it was necessary to give you these documents pursuant to the request for production so that you could not accuse PPG, or its counsel, of trying to hold back any documents. Therefore, in a good faith effort to produce everything, PPG has produced, in addition Stockwell, Sievert, Viccellio, Clements & Shaddock William B. Baggett, EsqMarch 9, 1993 Page 2 to documents that were generated and kept in the normal and scope of business, documents that were obtained through litigation. The next issue which you have raised is who to depose as PPG corporate representatives. Your litigation covers a period from 1946 or 1947 to 1976, which encompasses a 30+ year span. As you are well aware, the people who had knowledge as to the events which occurred in the relevant time periods are no longer with PPG through their death, retirement or leaving PPG. As I read La. C.C.P. Art. 1442, corporate designees must be current employees to speak for the corporation and we have diligently searched for these representatives. Number 1 under your Subject of Testimony is about insur ance coverage. We can produce an employee to testify about the insurance policies which have already been produced but I am not sure of the value to you of such testimony. I do not want to waste your time traveling to Pittsburgh to talk to a records custodian about policies which he/she will probably only be able to verify are documents previously given to you as copies of insurance policies which PPG believes insures its operations in Lake Charles. Number 10 under your Subject of Testimony is about the air sampling conducted at the Lake Charles PPG facility. We are confident that Mark Woods will be able to testify on this subject. With reference to Number 11 in the Subject of Testimony, the documents which have been located and produced originated from an agency of the federal government and are public notices or regulations in which the public received a copy. PPG does not have a specific person responsible for maintaining government documents. If you are looking for something specific, please advise and we will try to determine if someone can testify on that particular item. With regard to Number 12 in the Subject of Testimony, we have been unable to confirm that the PPG plant of Lake Charles had any contractual agreement between any agency of the United States for the manufacture or furnishing materials between 1945-1976 and therefore, no person is able to testify concerning this subject. Number 13 under your Subject of Testimony is about the identity of any insulation materials containing asbestos or ceramic fiber. A survey was performed by an outside contractor under the direction of Bob McCorquodale to identify asbestos insulation at the Lake Charles plant. The survey printout has been produced to you. General questions about the survey can be directed to Bob McCorquodale. Stockwell, Sievert, Viccellio. Clements & Shaddock William B. Baggett, Esq. March 9, 1993 Page 3 With reference to Number 14 in the Subject of Testimony, I think this would be an almost impossible task as there are so many engineers in and out of the PPG Lake Charles facility who worked on different projects that for each particular project you would have to find the particular engineer(s) who worked on the project and then have them testify about their recollection of their project. Therefore, I doubt with the broadness of such a request that we could produce a corporate representative; however, we are willing to produce a witness if you would be more specific. The remaining Subjects of Testimony mostly involve the safety department. We have determined that the only remaining PPG employee who would have any information about the time period in question is Bob McCorquodale and he did not begin working in the safety department until 1976. Therefore, he would only have infor mation about the subjects of testimony for approximately one year in 1976. In considering this response, please remember your list of executive officers in the petition for damages who are alleged as the culpable parties through which the corporation'acted. You will note that almost all of them are no longer with PPG or never worked at PPG Lake Charles. 1) C.K. Bellard - Retired 2) Loyal Wayne Carter- No longer employed with the company 3) Charles Cheisler- No longer employed with the company 4) Olyndia L. Cromeans- Retired 5) Tim Cullens- No longer employed with the company 6) J. Murry Davis- Retired 1) James T. Destefano- Worked in the Glass Division prior to 1976 8) Joseph L. Duhon- No longer employed with the company 9) Dewey L. Duncan- Deceased 10) Dr. Lee B. Grant- Retired 11) Wilmer B. Graybill- Retired StocKwell, Sievert, Viccellio, Clements & Shaddock William B. Baggett, Esq. March 9, 1993 Page 4 12) Dr. Harold B. Lovejoy- Deceased 13) Albert B. McRae, Jr.- Retired 14) Eudine McVicker- Deceased 15) Joseph Earl Morrison- Deceased 16) Howard B. Nelson - No longer employed with the company 17) Alvin T. Raetzch- Deceased 18) Robert K. Rolf- No longer employed with the company 19) Clyde Ruddick- Deceased 20) Hal Russell- Deceased 21) Robert Rubino- Worked in Glass Division prior to 1976 22) Donald Savoy- Never worked in safety department and presently in France 23) Donald J. Sherbondy- Deceased 24) Bob Sourwind- Retired 25) Dr. Clark Underwood- Retired 26) Orris Young- No longer employed with the company We will make Mark Wood available at a convenient date to you, Mark and myself. If you want to go forward with the insurance deposition, despite the fact that you already have the policies, we will work with you on that deposition. We can work with you in making Bob McCorquodale available, however, we want to warn you again that he did not move into the safety department until 1976 and, therefore, will not be knowledgeable about anything in the '40s, '50s, '60s and early '70s. He can, however, authenticate the documents to which we have already stipulated. With the warning of the potential deponent's limited knowledge, I do not want any accusations made against PPG that PPG is not putting the proper witness forward. We cannot help the fact that this litigation encompasses a time span in which knowledgeable employees are no longer with the company. Furthermore, we will continue to search Stockwell, Sievert, Viccellio. Clements & Shaddock William B. Baggett, Esq. March 9, 1993 Page 5 and will notify you if we locate any additional PPG personnel that may be able to testify about the Subjects of Testimony you have listed. With kindest regards, I am Sincerely yours. ECS/TGH:jr lext C. Sole ''Thomas G. Henning