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Industry-Provided Depositions

Attachment Xi. Cecil Bias Vs. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation. Deposition.

Date: 09 Jun 1980
Length: 151 pages
507733027-507733177
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07 Jan 1999
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Law
Sr Vp
Juchatz Ww
Type
DEPOSITION
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2907 -3232
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Rjr4087
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Minnesota
Letter
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19970311

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I I I 1 I I I I I I I I I 1 SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA FOR THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES NO. C 284 108 ------------------------------ 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) 989•9191 (201) 928-2584
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I I I I I I I I 2 3 4 5 6 10 I . a ~ . 11 . 12 I; 17 18 I 19 20 I 21 22 23 24 25 la 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 I I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 9 10 1 - ~ 11 ~ I 12 ~ 0 0 s ~ 13 !I ~ ; 14 II 8 I 15 e 16 17 I 18 I 19 20 21 I 22 23 ~ 24 24 25 z 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. 21 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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r 1 INDEX (Continued) ~, I I 1 2 3 I 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 4 5 t 6 I I 7 8 9 r 10 ~ 11 12 j s _ 13I~ W = 14 ~ 0 ~ . ~ ~ 15 0 < u z r ~ 16 1 I I I 17 18 20 21 22 23 24 25
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I I 1 ~ I I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 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 ~ i getting your testimony is as important as testi-h I mony given in court and in fact, under some 0 Z 0 ~ I J 14 15 i 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 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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I I I I I I I I e e 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 12 i Cohn - Northrip 5 ing characteristics and you were not sure as to that ( i date. Have you had a chance to check your records? i A. Yes. I checked the records and I found a I 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 20 21 22 23 24 25 identifies another date ahead of that. I would like to make another statement, if I i 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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I I I 1 A I H I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 : 11 . 0 12 s 13 a + Cohn - Ndorthrip I 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 I ment consisting of six paCes that is entitled Improv- ed I ed Cigarette by Charles C. Cohn and there is a hand- I written note on both of those mailed to Georce 11/13/; ~ 1956. Are those the same documents, copies of the i , same documents? IL Yes. MR. NORTHRIP: I would like the court I I I I I I 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 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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I I I I I I I I : I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 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 ; I 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:
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Cohn - 1lorthrip I I ~ I 1 1 I I a -1 I 2 3 4 5 6 7 ll ~i 12 !i 17 i 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 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 I J w questions.
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I I I I a I I r I I I I I e 0 I 2 3 4 5 6 11 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Cohn - ldorthrip 9 i C Do you have any documents that I you have i 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.

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