Evidence
8 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-8).
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[1]Fordham v. Asbeka Industries of New York, Inc. et al. (NYCAL Index No. 190414/11; removed to S.D.N.Y. No. 1:12-cv-01145-PAE; JPML Conditional Transfer Order 492); filings indexed on the MDL-875 docket, In re Asbestos Products Liability Litigation (No. VI), Doc. 8584 attachments 1 (Brief in Support of Motion to Vacate CTO-492) and 7 (Exhibit 5: memorandum for Emergency Motion to Remand and Motion to Strike Defendants' Affidavits), filed 2012-03-30 [court_record]
- Locator
- MDL-875 Doc. 8584-1 (vacate-CTO brief, pp.3-5, 13-14 reciting deposition T99-T122) and Doc. 8584-7 (remand brief, pp.4-5, 12-13; footnotes 2-3 re defendant affiants); deposition volume at Doc. 8584-3 (scanned, OCR corrupted)
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- Asbestos litigation record naming this hull: plaintiffs' MDL-875 filings recite that Milton Fordham, deposed February 2012, testified he served onboard the USS Hazelwood beginning approximately spring 1963 - about three months as a mess cook, then, after testing to E-3 Machinist, stationed in engine room '1' on the main control for the rest of his two years aboard until discharge April 1965. The briefs frame the removed claim as 'asbestos exposure to Defendants' products aboard the USS Hazelwood' and note the ship's two engine rooms and two boiler rooms per his testimony. Hull attribution is explicit: the brief quotes and cites the DANFS entry for Hazelwood II (DD-531), laid down 11 April 1942 by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Co., San Francisco. Procedural posture: NYCAL lung-cancer suit filed 19 October 2011 (second asbestos illness; first suit for asbestosis filed 16 December 2002, Index 127150/02); removed 14 February 2012 by defendants General Electric, CBS Corp. (Westinghouse), and Foster Wheeler under 28 U.S.C. 1442(a)(1) federal-officer jurisdiction; JPML issued CTO-492 (24 February 2012); plaintiffs moved to vacate the CTO and for emergency remand to state court and for an in-extremis NYCAL trial cluster (lung cancer).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1963-1965 (alleged exposure); 2002-2012 (litigation)
- Population
- Milton Fordham (USN 1963-1965: mess cook, then E-3 Machinist, engine room, USS Hazelwood; later LILCO worker; asbestosis diagnosis ~2002, lung cancer diagnosis 2011); Edna Fordham (consortium)
- Limitations
- Discovery/motion-stage recital - the shipboard exposure exists in this record as the plaintiff's own deposition testimony as summarized in his counsel's briefing; it was never tried or adjudicated. The deposition transcript itself is present in the retrieved set (MDL-875 Doc. 8584-3, 'Deposition Under Oral Examination of Milton Fordham, Volume I,' 46 pp.) but is a scanned document whose OCR layer is too corrupted to extract the Hazelwood passages directly - service and exposure detail here is as recited by plaintiffs' counsel with transcript pin-cites (T99-T122). The complaints also allege exposure at Long Island Lighting Company, so Navy service is not the sole alleged source. Disposition of the remand motion/CTO-492 and any later NYCAL merits history not located in public sources. Establishes the allegation of exposure to defendants' products aboard this hull, not asbestos presence, quantity, causation, or legal outcome.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-hazelwood-dd531-01
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[2]Same filings (MDL-875 Doc. 8584-7, Emergency Motion to Remand / Motion to Strike Defendants' Affidavits): defendant-affiant section addressing Foster Wheeler and General Electric equipment aboard USS Hazelwood [court_record]
- Locator
- MDL-875 Doc. 8584-7, legal-argument section (affiants' knowledge re USS Hazelwood specifications) and Doc. 8584-1 pp.4-5
- Finding type
- litigation_product_id
- Finding
- Product-identification element of the Fordham record: the removing defendants were General Electric Company, CBS Corporation (Westinghouse), and Foster Wheeler LLC, and the dispute turned on whether their equipment (the briefs discuss 'Foster Wheeler products aboard the USS Hazelwood' and GE marine steam turbines) carried Navy-specification asbestos components. Defendants' affiants (Hobson for GE marine steam turbines; Schroppe for Foster Wheeler; Lehman on New York Naval Shipyard practice) filed generic specification affidavits asserting Navy control of design; plaintiffs moved to strike them for lack of firsthand knowledge of this specific ship ('None of the affidavits address the USS Hazelwood or any designs or plans for this specific ship'). Fletcher-class machinery was 4 Babcock & Wilcox boilers and 2 GE geared steam-turbine sets - consistent with boiler and turbine product lines being litigated aboard this hull.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1942-43 construction-era equipment; 2012 (litigation)
- Population
- Milton Fordham (engine-room machinist, USS Hazelwood 1963-1965)
- Limitations
- Pleading-stage product identification: the record shows defendants' products were alleged aboard this hull and that defendants filed supporting affidavits, but the plaintiffs' own briefing characterizes those affidavits as generic and not ship-specific - the filings do not themselves establish which exact products were installed on DD-531. No adjudicated product finding. Litigation history beyond the March 2012 motions not located.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-hazelwood-dd531-02
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[3]DANFS, Hazelwood II (DD-531) (specifications block, full service narrative, striking/sale; verbatim HyperWar/ibiblio transcription - live NHHC page serves 404) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS entry, specifications block + service narrative
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- DANFS record for this hull: laid down 11 April 1942 by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Co., San Francisco, Calif.; launched 20 November 1942 (sponsor Mrs. Harold J. Fosdick); commissioned 18 June 1943, Comdr. Hunter Wood, Jr. WWII Pacific service: Tarawa raid (Sept 1943), Wake Island strikes (Oct 1943), Gilbert Islands invasion (Nov 1943), Kwajalein/Majuro (Jan-Feb 1944), Solomons/Marshalls patrol and New Ireland bombardment, Peleliu (Sept 1944), Leyte invasion and Battle of Leyte Gulf (Oct 1944), fast-carrier strikes on Ryukyus/Formosa/Okinawa/China coast (Jan 1945), Japan-home-island strikes and Iwo Jima support (Feb 1945), Okinawa radar picket. 29 April 1945 kamikaze hit #2 stack and smashed into the bridge: ten officers and 67 men killed including CO Comdr. V. P. Douw, 36 missing; Lt.(j.g.) C. M. Locke brought the ship to Ulithi 5 May for temporary repairs, then Mare Island via Pearl Harbor, arriving 14 June for permanent repairs. Decommissioned 18 January 1946 (Pacific Reserve Fleet, San Diego). Recommissioned San Diego 12 September 1951; Newport RI homeport, Atlantic Fleet from January 1952; Far East deployment December 1953-May 1954 incl. Korean-coast patrol; Mediterranean/6th Fleet incl. Suez crisis 1956; from 1958 DASH (Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopter) development testing with Destroyer Development Division - August 1963 alone recorded 1,000 drone landings; Cuban missile crisis quarantine duty (Nov 1962, TF-84 gun fire support ship, Guantanamo); April 1963 search for USS Thresher; SLAD trials. Decommissioned 19 March 1965, Atlantic Reserve Fleet, berthed Norfolk, Va. Struck from the Navy list 1 December 1974; sold 14 April 1976. Ten battle stars for WWII service. Spec block: Fletcher class; 2,050 t.; 376'3"; cpl. 273; 37 kt; 5x5in, 2x21in tt.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1942-1976
- Population
- Bethlehem Shipbuilding (San Francisco) construction trades 1942-43; wartime and postwar crew (design complement 273); Mare Island repair workforce 1945
- Limitations
- DANFS documents identity, construction, service history, and disposition - not materials or asbestos content. The kamikaze-hit repair period at Mare Island (14 June 1945 onward) is a documented yard availability; the work scope is not described. Mirror transcription cited because the live NHHC page returns 404.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-hazelwood-dd531-03
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[4]NavSource Naval History, Destroyer Photo Index DD-531 USS Hazelwood (photo-caption chronology: Mare Island overhauls, Boston NSY DASH modification, disposal buyer) + NHHC photo NH 107246 caption (via ibiblio mirror) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource DD-531 page operational/building data + photo captions (30 Aug 1943, 27 Sep 1945, Jul 1961 Boston NSY, 1959 Norfolk); ibiblio Online Library photo data i07246c.htm (NH 107246)
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Documented yard availabilities and disposition detail: NavSource captions place USS Hazelwood at Mare Island Naval Shipyard for overhaul 8-30 August 1943 (photo dated 30 August 1943 'at the conclusion of her overhaul at the yard') and again 14 June-29 September 1945 (post-kamikaze permanent repairs; photo 27 September 1945 with YO-32 alongside); a July 1961 photo places the ship at Boston Naval Shipyard 'being modified to support and carry DASH helicopter'; NavSource records sale 14 April 1976 to Union Minerals & Alloy, New York, for breaking up, and notes '77 of her crew were lost and remain on duty' (the 29 April 1945 kamikaze toll). NHHC photo NH 107246 (official U.S. Navy photo, ibiblio mirror) captions the ship near Newport circa 1959-1960 'following conversion to the Navy's first Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopter (DASH) equipped destroyer,' attached to Destroyer Development Group Two.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1943-1976
- Population
- Mare Island and Boston NSY shipyard workers (1943, 1945, 1961 availabilities); crew during 1963-65 service
- Limitations
- NavSource is a volunteer photographic archive, not an official repository - used here to corroborate yard-period dates and the scrapping buyer; direct fetch of the page failed during the session and content was verified via search-index capture. The captions document presence at yards, not work scope or materials. NHHC photo caption is official but documents the conversion configuration, not materials.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-hazelwood-dd531-04
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[5]Gyrodyne Helicopters historical archive, Fletcher class DASH page - 'first destroyer to carry the operational DASH system' (secondary specialist source) + Boston NSY photo caption (NavSource) [other_primary]
- Locator
- gyrodynehelicopters.com Fletcher-class DASH page (Hazelwood paragraph); NavSource DD-531 caption 'Boston Naval Shipyard, July 1961'
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- DASH conversion context: Hazelwood was the prototype DASH destroyer - NavSource notes conversion to a DASH helicopter trials ship in 1958, and the Gyrodyne archive records that she did not receive a FRAM II overhaul but as the DASH prototype 'was subject to the same installation criteria' as the FRAM Fletcher DASH ships, with hangar and flight deck built aft; Boston Naval Shipyard hosted DASH-support modification work in July 1961 (photo caption). Conversion work of this kind (structure, cabling, aviation systems added aft over the 1958-1961 window) is a documented availability-type event on this hull.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1958-1965
- Population
- Conversion/shipyard workers 1958-1961; DASH test crews 1958-1965
- Limitations
- Secondary specialist source (manufacturer-history archive) plus a NavSource photo caption - corroborates the conversion events, not their material content; no abatement or ACM documentation accompanies the conversion record. Whether the initial 1958 DASH installation occurred at Boston NSY or elsewhere is not established by these captions.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-hazelwood-dd531-05
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[6]DANFS specifications block (Fletcher class; 37 kt; cpl. 273) + Atlas shipyard dataset records: bethlehem-shipbuilding (corporate Bethlehem record incl. 'Union Iron Works' alias), mare-island-naval-shipyard, boston-naval-shipyard, norfolk-naval-shipyard; NARA RG19 General Information Books archival lead [other_primary]
- Locator
- DANFS specifications block; shipyards.json records 'bethlehem-shipbuilding', 'mare-island-naval-shipyard', 'boston-naval-shipyard', 'norfolk-naval-shipyard'; NARA RG19 lead
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Era/yard inference: a WWII Fletcher-class destroyer built 1942-43 with a four-boiler/60,000-shp steam plant would have carried period-standard asbestos boiler and steam-line insulation, turbine lagging, gaskets, packing, fireproofing, and deck coverings. The builder (Bethlehem Shipbuilding Co., San Francisco - the former Union Iron Works yard at Potrero Point) is documented at corporate-yard level in the Atlas dataset (tier 3; documented products incl. 85% magnesia block, Marinite board, Transite pipe covering, Unibestos, asbestos lagging, gaskets and packing); documented repair/conversion yards on this hull (Mare Island 1943/1945, Boston NSY 1961, reserve berthing at Norfolk 1965-74) likewise carry yard-level asbestos documentation. NARA RG19 'General Information Books' per-vessel material specifications are an unretrieved archival lead for hull-level specs.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1942-1974
- Population
- Bethlehem San Francisco construction trades 1942-43; Mare Island and Boston NSY yard workers; crew 1943-1965
- Limitations
- Class/era and builder-yard inference only - NOT an independent ship-specific finding; the ship-specific findings for this hull are ev-01/ev-02 (Fordham record). The yard dataset's Bethlehem record is a corporate multi-yard record (Quincy MA listed as seat; San Francisco yard covered via the Union Iron Works alias) - San-Francisco-yard-specific asbestos documentation is not separately itemized. Does not quantify material aboard or establish any individual's exposure.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-hazelwood-dd531-06
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[7]GAO, Navy Efforts To Protect Workers From Asbestos Exposure, HRD-80-2 (Oct 18, 1979) [gao]
- Locator
- GAO product page HRD-80-2
- Finding type
- gov_survey
- Finding
- GAO documented that the Navy used asbestos insulation extensively aboard ships and did not begin substituting alternative insulation materials until the early 1970s - placing DD-531's construction (1942-43), both commissioned service periods (1943-46, 1951-65), and her repair/conversion availabilities inside the documented asbestos-use era.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1979
- Population
- Navy shipyard workers; asbestos program review
- Limitations
- Program-level documentation; supports era context only, not any fact specific to this hull. Full report text not retrieved (gao.gov blocks automated fetch, HTTP 403) - content via product-page description.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-hazelwood-dd531-07
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[8]Batch-3507 search ledger (this record): DANFS mirror; CourtListener API v4 (opinion + RECAP searches, full-text exhibit pull); NavSource; NHHC Online Library (ibiblio mirror); Gyrodyne archive; reunion blog; NVR; NARA RG19 (not digitized); law-firm/aggregator ship pages (excluded per sourcing rules) [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-hazelwood-dd531-01 through -12
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No hull-specific asbestos survey, abatement record, materials inventory, or hazmat disclosure located for DD-531 in the public sources searched (see search_ledger). The ship was stricken 1974 and sold for scrap in April 1976 - before modern asbestos documentation practice - and never became a museum, so the museum-disclosure channel that produced ship-specific records for preserved hulls does not exist here. CourtListener opinion searches return zero asbestos opinions naming the hull; the only asbestos-litigation surface located is the Fordham MDL-875 filing set (ev-01, ev-02), a discovery-stage record, plus a name-match court-martial opinion (United States v. Dodge, 1964) that is non-asbestos. No affirmative adjudicated exposure finding located.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 2026-09-27
- Limitations
- Absence of a located public record does not prove absence of asbestos aboard - era-standard applications are documented at class/era level and the Fordham record alleges exposure to defendants' products aboard. The hull no longer exists (scrapped 1976), so present-day ACM status is moot.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-hazelwood-dd531-08