Johns-Manville

Johns-Manville is an American corporation based in Denver, Colorado [http://www.jm.com/corporate/266.htm] involved in the manufacture insulation, roofing materials, and engineered products. The stock was included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average from January 29, 1930 to August 27, 1982. It was replaced with American Express. In 2001 it was bought by Berkshire Hathaway. Since 2004, when Chairman & CEO Jerry Henry retired, Steve Hochhauser became Chairman, President & CEO. Steve Hochhauser was replaced in the summer of 2007 by Todd Raba who came from another Berkshire Hathaway Company called Mid-American Energy Holdings.

The Johns-Manville Corporation is how the borough of Manville, New Jersey obtained its name, as the company had a large plant in the borough.

History

The company was founded as the H.W. Johns Manufacturing Company in New York in 1858, and was an early asbestos manufacturer in the United States.

The Manville Covering Company was founded in Wisconsin in 1885 by C. B. Manville. C. B. Manville's grandson was the much-married socialite Tommy Manville.

H.W. Johns and Manville merged in 1901 to form H.W. Johns-Manville, which changed to Johns-Manville in 1926.

Industrialist Lewis H. Brown was president of the Johns-Manville Corporation in the 1930s.

The Canadian branch of the corporation was involved in the extremely violent Asbestos Strike in Canada in 1949.

The company actively marketed its insulation services through a range of materials featuring Rosemary Melcher in 1978.

The corporation also faced major class-action lawsuits in the 1980s based on asbestos-related injuries, and filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1982, then the largest company in US history to do so.

The bankruptcy was resolved by the formation of the Manville Trust to pay asbestos tort claimants in an orderly fashion by giving the trust the lion's share of the equity in the company. The bankruptcy took over 5 years to process and resulted in extremely protracted litigation. The Manville Trust is still in operation today.

References

* cite book
last = Thompson
first = David
coauthors = G. Marcus Cole
editor = Robert Rammusen
title = Bankruptcy Stories
publisher = Foundation Press
year = 2007
chapter = The Intersection of Bankruptcy and Mass Torts
isbn = 1599410184

External links

* [http://www.jm.com Johns-Manville Website]
* [http://www.lhc.org.uk/members/pubs/books/asbestos/asb09.htm About the class action suit] in the Asbestos Hazards Handbook (London Hazards Centre)
* [http://www.jm.com/marketing/jm150/pdf/JM150thCommemorativePublication-English.pdf]
* [http://www.jmhomeowner.com Home Insulation site]
* [http://www.specjm.com Building Materials site]