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{
    "localId": "75729026",
    "label": "Copies of Court Documents, July , 1935",
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{
    "id": "75729026",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75729026",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Copies of Court Documents, July , 1935",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75729026",
    "collections": [
        "Safety Light Collection",
        "Records Related to Radium Dial Painters"
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{
    "seq": 7,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "document",
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    "ocrText": "UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT\nDISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY\nHAROLD J. WEBER,\n(\nAdministrator Ad Prosequen-\ndum of LOUISE HANLE WEBER,\n(\ndeceased, and HAROLD J.\nWEBER, administrator of the (\nestate of LOUISE HANLE\nWEBER, deceased,\n((\nPlaintiffs,\n(\nAction at Law\n-vs-\n(\nUNITED STATES RADIUM CORPOR-\nCOMPLAINT\nATION, a corporation of the )\nState of Delaware,\nDefendant\n)\nThe plaintiff Harold J. Weber, administrator ad-pro-\nsequendum of Louise Hanle Weber, deceased, says that:\nFIRST COUNT\n1. The plaintiff is a resident and citizen of the\nmunicipality of Love Bridge, Ulster County, in the State of New York. The\nplaintiff was duly appointed and has qualified as administrator ad pro-\nsequendum of Louise Hanle Weber, such appointment having been made by the\nSurrogate of Essex County, New Jersey, on June 17, 1935.\n2. The defendant is a corporation of the State of Delaware.\n3. The amount in controversy herein exceeds the sum of\n$3,000.00, exclusive of interest and costs.\n4. Prior to, during, and for many years after 1918 the\ndefendant was engaged in the manufacture and sale of various commodities\nrendered luminous by the application of radio active substances, particularly\nthe dials and hands of watches and clocks.\n5. The defendant maintained a plant at Orange, New Jersey\nwhere substances containing radio active materials were prepared and applied\nto the commodities hereinabove mentioned, the radioactive materials used\nbeing radium, mesothorium, and thorium-x.\n6. Each of these last mentioned materials whether used\nalone or in any combination, is inherently potent and inherently highly\ndangerous and injurious to human health and human tissues when brought into\nclose proximity with the human body or when introduced therein, and was in\nfact highly dangerous and injurious as used by the defendant in the quantities\nemployed in carrying on the operations hereinabove mentioned.\n7. The defendant employed the decedent in the year 1918\nand for about two years thereafter, in the ordinary course of its business,\nto work at the preparation of a substance containing some or all of the\nradio active materials above mentioned, and in the actual application thereof\nto the dials and hands of watches and clocks, at the plant maintained by the\ndefendant in Orange, New Jersey.\n8. The defendant negligently and carelessly, and despite\nits knowledge, actual and constructive, as to the dangerous and injurious\nnature of these radioactive materials to human tissues, so conducted its\nbusiness and 80 caused the decedent to carry on her work, as to cause her to\ningest and inhale large quantities of solid and gaseous redioactive sub-\nstances contained in and given off from the material with which she worked,\nand likewise omitted and failed to supply her with reasonably adequate and\nsafe tools, appliances, methods and working conditions for carrying on her\nwork, and on the contrary caused her to prosecute the same with unsafe,\ndangerous and inadequate tools, appliances, methods and working conditions, and\nlikewise omitted and failed to warn her or apprise her of umusual risks attend-\ning her employment known to it and to its knowledge not patent and observable\nto the decedent and of which the decedent was wholly ignorant, and likewise\nomitted and failed to warn her or apprise her of the dangerous nature of the\nradioactive materials with which she was working, and of which she was wholly\nignorant, and otherwise negligently and carelessly used and employed the\nradioactive materials above mentioned in and about its place of business.\n9. As the proximate result of the negligence and careless-\nness of the acts and omissions of the defendant stated in the preceding para-\ngraph, radioactive materials were thus ingested and inhaled into the body of\nthe decedent and became in part, lodged and fixed in various organs and tissues.\n10. The nature of the several substances fixed and deposited\nin the body of the plaintiff's decedent is such that they continue to remain\npotent and active for many years and produce by their inherent natural\nproperties destructive effects upon human bones, tissues and other portions\nof the body, of which properties and actions the defendant was, in 1918,\ncharged with knowledge.\n11. The fact of the fixation and deposit of radioactive\nsubstances in the body of the decedent was first learned and discovered as the\nresult of an autopsy performed on the body of the decedent on February 22,\n1985, the decedent having died February 18, 1935. The radioactive substances\nfixed and deposited in the decedent's body produced her death on the date\naforesaid by causing in her bones a condition of radiation ostietis, injuries\nto her blood, and particularly a metastatic osteogenic sarcoma of the\nmediastinum. At the time the autopsy was performed, it was revealed and first\nbecame known that the radioactive substances fixed and deposited in the\ndecedent's body were responsible for a primary osteogenic sarcoma of the\nhumerus which necessitated the amputation of the right arm of the decedent\nin January, 1934, and for a malignant growth upon the jaw which necessitated\nthe removal of three teeth.\n12. The decedent left her surviving as her heirs and next\nof kin, her husband, Harold J. Weber, and five children, Theresa, 12 years\nold, Katherine, 11 years old, Louise, 8 years old, Harold 7 years old, and\nArlene, 4 years old, all of whom have suffered pecuniary loss by reason of\nthe death of the plaintiff's decedent.\n13. This action is brought within two years next after\nthe death of the plaintiff's decedent.\nJudgment will be claimed on the first count in the SUR of\n$75,000.00, together with cost of this suit to be taxed.\nSECOND COUNT\n1. The plaintiff is a resident and citizen of the munici-\npality of Olive Bridge, Ulster County, in the State of New York. The plain-\ntiff was duly appointed and has qualified as administrator ad prosequendum\nof Louise Hanle Weber, such appointment having been made by the Surrogate of\nEssex County, New Jersey, on June 17, 1935.\n2. The plaintiff repeats the allegations of paragraphs\n2 to 12 inclusive of the first count.\n3. By reason of the negligentmanner in which the\ndefendant conducted and carried on its business as hereinabove particularly\ndescribed andby reason of the general manner in which it earried on con-\ntinuously the business above referred to, employing and soliciting for em-\nployment large numbers of persons continuously, the defendant did in fact\nthereby create and maintain a nuisance, from which the decedent received a\ndirect and special injury by reason of the proximate and natural effect of\nsaid nuisance in introducing into and fixing and depositing in the body of\nthe said decedent the substances hereinabove referred to and in causing them\nto come in dangerous and close proximity and contact with the body of the\ndecedent, by reason of all of which she died.\nJudgment will be claimed on the second count in the sum\nof $75,000.00, together with costs of this suit to be taxed.\nThe plaintiff Harold J. Weber, administrator of the estate\nof Louise Hanle Weber, deceased, says that:\nTHIRD COUNT\n1. The plaintiff is & resident and citizen of the munici-\npality of Olive Bridge, Ulster County, in the State of New York. The plain-\ntiff was duly appointed and has qualified as administrator of the estate of\nLouise Hanle Weber, such appointment having been made by the Surrogate of\nEssex County, New Jersey, on June 17, 1935.\n2. The plaintiff repeats the allegations of paragraphs\n2 to 11 inclusive of the first count.\n3.\nFor considerably more than at year prior to the time\nof her death, the decedent suffered much pain as a result of lesions produced\nby radioactive substances deposited and fixed in her body, and in addition\nto the pain suffered by reason of the condition of her right arm as the\nsame developed, and the amputation thereof, the decedent suffered in other\nparts of her body from the effects of the said radioactive substances, and\nwas obliged to expend and become indebted in large sums of money for medical\nand hospital attention and for medicines and appliances, and was prevented\nfrom attending to her usual occupations thereby producing additional\npecuniary loss and damage, all of which has been to the detriment of the\nestate of the decedent.\nJudgment will be claimed on the third count in the sum of\n$50,000.00, together with cost of this suit to be taxed.\nFOURTH COUNT\n1. The plaintiff is a resident and citizen of the munici-\npality of Olive Bridge, Ulster County, in the State of New York. The plain-\ntiff was duly appointed and has qualified as administrator of the estate of\nLouise Hanle Weber, such appointment having been made by the Surrogate of\nEssex County, New Jersey, on June 17, 1935.\n2. The plaintiff repeats the allegations of paragraphs\n2 to 11 inclusive of the first count.\n3. The plaintiff repeats the allegations of paragraphs\n5 of the second count.\n4. The plaintiff repeats the allegations of paragraph\n3 of thethird count.\nJudgment will be claimed on the fourth count in the sum of\n$50,000.00, together with costs of this suit to be taxed.\nEmmerglick & Emmerglick (signed)\nHarry W. Sherma n (signed)\nAttorneys for and of counsel\nwith plaintiffs.\nLAW\n5201\nUNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT\nDISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY\nHAROLD J. WEBER, Administrator\nad prosequendum of LOUISE HANLE\nWEBER, deceased, and HAROLD J.\nWEBER, administrator of the\nestate of LOUISE HANLE WEBER,\ndeceased,\nPlaintiffs,\n--VS-\nUNITED STATES RADIUM CORPORATION\na corporation of the State of\nDelaware,\nDefendant.\nACTION AT LAW\nCOMPLAINT\nEMMERGLICK & EMMERGLICK,\n11 Commerce St.,\nNewark, N.J.\nHARRY W. SHERMAN,\nXXX 11 Commerce St.,\nNewark, N.J.\nAttorneys for and of counsel\nsith plaintiffs."
}