UM Grace Case

 During his time as a senior financial analyst for W.R. Grace, James Becker was charged with looking into the viability of the Zonolite Company, a division of W.R. Grace, given a variety of hypothetical situations. According to Becker, one of the biggest problems facing the company was tighter asbestos regulations that would force the company to label their products as hazardous.

“This was one of the major problems facing Zonolite,” he said. “If the products were labeled as containing asbestos they were worried that nobody would buy them.”

Government attorney Kris McLean offered several hand-drawn documents as exhibits. Becker had created the  planning tools as a member of the Zonolite Strategic Task force in the late 1970s. These exhibits, called “decision trees” by Becker, mapped out a variety of situations and how to best handle possible repercussions. Becker compiled these different hypothetical situations into a report, admitted as government exhibit 57c, which he said was to serve as a basis for making decisions regarding Zonolite’s future.

“I created it so that it could be presented to the task force and used as the basis for possible options,” he said.

Becker said that many of the scenarios pointed to decreasing business for Zonolite. Under the heading of “unfortunate outside events,” Becker’s report cites bad publicity, increased regulation and possible worker lawsuits all leading to a decline in sales and possible criminal actions against W.R. Grace. Such reports inspired testing conducted by Grace at the site of various large consumers of its vermiculite.

Defense attorney David Bernick objected several times during Becker’s testimony, making it clear that he wanted the jury to consider the exhibits strictly as business documents considering theoretical outcomes, not evidence of any asbestos releases. The defense began to cross-examine  after McLean wrapped up his direct examination shortly after the court’s afternoon recess.

-Kyle Lehman (Posted 3:55)