Industry-Provided Depositions
Attachment Xi. Cecil Bias Vs. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation. Deposition.
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- DEPOSITION
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- Rjr4087
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- Request
- 19970311
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SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
FOR THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES
NO. C 284 108
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CECIL BIAS,
Plaintiff,
vs .
BROWN, WILLIAMSON TOBACCO .
CORPORATION, and DOES 1 .
throuCh 20, inclusive, .
Defendant. .
------------------------------
Deposition of CHARLES C. COHN taken stenograph-
ically in the above-entitled matter before DIANE M.
PETRO'd, Certified Shorthand Reporter and Notary Public of
the Sr,.^te of New Jersey, at the law office.s of Rothenberg
and Hyett, Esquires, 3430 Atlantic Avenue, Atlantic City,
New Jersey, on Tuesday, June 3, 1980, commencing at 9:30
a.r:.
A P P E A R A N C E S:
JOEL W. H. KLEINBERG, ESQUIRE
(California Counsel)
For the Plaintiff
SHOOK, HARDY & BACON, LSQUIRES
( Tdlssouri Counsel )
BY: ROBERT E. NORTHRIP, ESQUIRE
For the Defendant
SILVER, RENZI & GEIST
CERTIFIED SHORTHAND REPORTERS
(800) 792-B860 (N.J. ONLY)
~ 824 WEST STATE STREET RT. 571 RD3 BOX 256D
p7~ TRENTON, N.J. 08618 JACKSON, N.J. 08527
(609) 9899191 (201) 928-2584

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GILBT`RT, KELLY, CROWLEY & JENNETT, ESQUIRES
(California Counsel) ~
BY: THOMAS J. VIOLA, ESQUIRE ~
-and-
WILLIAM D. JEN1dETT, ESQUIRE
For the Defendant
J. KENDRICK WELLS, III, ESQUIRE
(Kentucky Counsel) - (Corporate Counsel)
For the Defendant

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I N D E X
WITNESS
CHARLES C. COHN
By rir. . Northrip
EXHIBITS
Patent No. 31033914
D-1 Document entitled "Improved Cigarette" 6
D-2 Patent No. 3030963
D- 3
D-4
PAGE
I.D.
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43
Patent ?+o. 3220415 51
D-5 Letter dated May 31, 1979 to Mr. Charles
C. Cohn from Robert W. Spencer 62
D-6 Letter to Brown and ldilliamson Tobacco
Company from Technical Processes Division
of Colonial Alloys Cor:pany dated November
15, 1973 91
D-7 Report 92
D-6 Letter dated November 30, 1973 to Dr.
Gori 103
D-9 Document entitled "Evaluation of Ciga-
rettes made with Colite treated papers"
dated September 27, 1972
110

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EXHIBTTS I.D.I
D-10 Letter frori Colonial Alloys Company, Mr.
Charles Cohn to Department of Health,
Education and Welfare dated June 2,
1978 131
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C 1; A R L E S C. C 0 1? N, sworn:
MR. KLEINBERG: The witness has been
sworn and I guess one of us should, as a for-
mality, simply remind you, Mr. Cohn, that you
are under oath as you were yesterday and that
of course as you know carries with it the same
penalty as for perjury as the oath that is
given when a witness is caused to testify in
court. Again, I remind you that what we are
doinl;here today in taking your deposition and I
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getting your testimony is as important as testi-h
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mony given in court and in fact, under some
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circunstances the Judge might instruct the juryj
once your testimony was read from the deposi-
tion booklet, to give it the same force and
effect as if you were in the court live giving
testirr.ony.
You understand all of that, don't you?
THE WITNESS : Yes.
EXAMINATION BY MR. NORTHRIP:
Q Mr. Cohn, durinr the taking of your
deposition yesterday there was some questions asked
about when you had made your initial review of the
State of the Art in connection with cigarettes with
a reduced fire causing propensity of self-extinguish-

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Cohn - Northrip 5
ing characteristics and you were not sure as to that (
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date. Have you had a chance to check your records? i
A. Yes. I checked the records and I found a
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communication that I had sent to our patent attorneysi
dated November the 13th, 1956. I
Q So, it be your testimony then that it is
approximately that date that you had done your review
of the State of the Art?
A No. My review of the State of the Art was be-
fore that.
4 Approximately how long before that, if
you can tell me?
A. I would guess a year or two before that.
4
So,
your review of the State of the Art
would have been in approximately 1954, 1955?
A. I believe that is reasonable.
4 Might I see that document, please, that
you have referred to?
Yes. And another letter was in that file which
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identifies another date ahead of that.
I would like to make another statement, if I
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may, with respect to my files.
4 Go ahead.
A. Some months ago the house was broken into and
we were robbed and the papers with respect to my files,

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among other things, were strewn all over the place,
thousands of papers. And I have never to this day
been able to get them all in perfect filing dates and
so on so that they're probably more papers available.
As if and when I find them, I will be Clad to present
them.
~ You have handed me two copies of a docu- i
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ment consisting of six paCes that is entitled Improv-
ed I
ed Cigarette by Charles C. Cohn and there is a hand-
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written note on both of those mailed to Georce 11/13/;
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1956. Are those the same documents, copies of the i
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same documents?
IL Yes.
MR. NORTHRIP: I would like the court
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reporter to mark one of those documents then.
It doesn't really matter which one. This would
be Defendant's Exhibit #1.
(Marked Exhibit D-1 for identification.)
MR. NORTHRIP: It would be agreeable to
the defendant and I assume the plaintiff, Mr.
Kleinberg --
MR. KLEINBERG: That's correct.
MR. NORTHRIP: -- if copies can be made
of Defendant's Exhibit 1 or any other documents
produced by Mr. Cohn and the originals can be

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Cohn - Northrip 7
returned to him.
MR. KLEINBEP,G: Yes. Let's reiterate by
stipulation to make sure it is clear among all
of us. That all of the documents that we have
used so far, and I will assume unless I point
out that all of the documents that we do use ini
the future in terms of copies of them, are trueil
;
and correct copies of those documents which were
found in Mr. Cohn's original files.
MR. NORTHRIP: We would make that stipu-
lation as to documents Mr. Cohn has produced
here at the deposition; that they are true and
correct copies of what he has in his files.
MR. F:LEINBERG: I presume that stipula-
tion should also embrace the Technical Process
Division of Colonial Alloys Company
Alloys Companies because
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and Colonial
those headings appear
on some of the documents since apparently Mr.
Cohn was writing on behalf of that entity. Is
that correct?
MR. NORTHRIP: Yes. We would so stipu-
late they are true and correct copies that he
has produced from his files.
MR. KLEINBERG: Thank you.
BY MR. NORTHRIP:

Cohn - 1lorthrip
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Q Mr. Cohn, this document which has been
marked as Defendant's Exhibit 1 is an early document
prepared by you and I assune sent to your patent
attorney concerning your early work concerning
ciearettes that Yr.ight have a reduced ignition poten-
tial or self-extinEuishing characteristic, is that
correct?
A. Let me review this to see what it talked about,
this specification.
The answer is yes.
Q In your review of the files this past
evening, have you found any other documents that you
would like to produce irn response to questions asked
yesterday either by Mr. Kleinberg or by myself?
A. Would you repeat that again.
Q Certainly. Did you review your file last
evening?
A. Yes, to some extent.
Q Did you find any other.document that you
did not have with you and produced during the deposi-
tion tion yesterday that would have been covered by the i
questions asked either by Mr. Kleinberg or myself?
A I have found certain documents. I believe some
of them a:ight not have been covered by Mr. Kleinberg' m
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questions.

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C Do you have any documents that I
you have
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found that were covered by Mr. Kleinberg's questions?j
A. Well, I brought them to Mr. Kleinberg for him
to determine whether it was a repetition or not.
A:R. KLEINBERG: The ones that Mr. Cohn
gave me that I thought were pertinent to what
we had done yesterday, was, number one, the
letter from ldationai Bureau of Standards that
had been referred to in one of our other exhi-
bits as being an enclosure sent to Brown and
Williamson; that is, a letter dated August 17,
1978.
MR. NORTI-:RIP: Off the record for a
minute.
(Whereupon, an off-the-record discussion
was held.)
MR. NORTHRIP: I think we can ro back on
the record now.
BY MR. NORTHRIP:
Q Mr. Cohn, would you tell me and review
for me all the tests as to who did them and when they
occurred on your cigarette developments, and by that
I would exclude taste tests and fire protection self-
extinguishing tests. I am interested in other tests
performed on your cigarettes.
