I got to talking to [unknown] staff worker. She referred me
to a lawyer—Don Morehead. I went over there, he said, "Sure, you've got
a case, of course, we've had some laws changed in South Carolina.
"—Workmen's Compensation Law. Brown Lung had some influence to do it, I
don't say they done it by theirself. They kept putting pressure on them
and they done away with the medical panels there in Columbia. Used to,
if you had a lawyer that wanted Workmen's Compensation, you go over to
the medical panel. There would be one doctor, one commissioner for you,
one for the company, one for the insurance company. It's no way possible
you had a chance to win. A lawyer couldn't even cross-examine a doctor,
but all that's changed now. That's the reason my case went through. It
rocked long, and I had a deposition about it. I told them how I got
brown lung. I went to Dr. Plumber at Emory University, my wife both,
cost us five hundred dollars. We had to pay that out of our pocket. It
should've been come out of the company's pocket. They should of had to
pay it. The burden of proof's on us to prove that we sick, and we're
already sick. You don't have to do that, you can do that by just
Page 6 looking at us with our breathing. The burden of
proof's on us, but it should be on the mill. They should have to foot
the bill for examinations. The Liberty Mutual after that, three weeks
later, they sent me to Dr. Harris, their doctor. I never did have no
better examination, no harder examination when I went in service. I told
him, "There's no need to check my knees and feet and everything. Right
up here is what the matter with my lung." See, they trying to find
something else wrong with you so they could lay it on that. They didn't
want to come up and say you had byssinosis. I couldn't get him to admit
that. But this other doctor done had it. I told him, "Dr. Harris, a
specialist down at Emory University—that's a famous university—he said I
had byssinosis number 3" and he couldn't even find out the asbestos in
my lung. "After fifteen years, you say that stuff's out in three weeks?"
His mouth flew open, the nurse's mouth flew open. He said, "I'll tell
you what I'll do, Mr. Cline. I'm going to have somebody else to read
them x-rays." That caught him right there, he was the expert. He
supposed to been a expert on that. I just called his hand. The man that
tell me asbestos been in my lungs fifteen years, and three weeks ago it
was still in there, and he said it was out in three weeks. I said, "I
hope you're right. I hope there ain't nothing wrong in there." But see,
he was company doctor. There's no way in the world he would give me a
good recommendation or a good report because they don't pay him for
that. They pay him to find out things besides byssinosis. If you had a
broke toe or anything like that, he might put that down, or a tumor on
the brain or something. He'd be glad to put that down.