Now, the log might guide him to proof that the companies had long known that asbestos exposure could be deadly. The proof came in a carton of documents that had belonged to then-Raybestos-Manhattan Inc president Sumner Simpson. The documents exposed a conspiracy of suppression and silence among multiple companies even as workers sickened and died. “The federal judiciary’s commitment to open justice has come under sustained attack by corporate lawyers and lobbyists,” said US Representative Hank Johnson, a Georgia Democrat and member of the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee. The corporate lawyers found ready support from judges and court staff overwhelmed by all the litigation and the paperwork it produced.
