A federal judge in New Orleans has awarded seven plaintiffs from Virginia more than $2.6 million in a consolidated case involving damage to their homes as a result of the installation of substandard drywall from China.
In an opinion published on April 8, U.S. District Judge Eldon E. Fallon concluded that proper remediation for the damaged homes would be “to remove all drywall in their homes, all items which have suffered corrosion as a result of the Chinese drywall, and all items which will be materially damaged in the process of removal.”
The decision came just days after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) released a report advising homeowners with Chinese drywall to completely remove the tainted product and replace all electrical components and wiring, gas service piping, fire suppression sprinkler systems, smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms.
Germano, et al. v. Taishan Gypsum Co. Ltd., et al., case no. 09-6687 represents the consolidation of numerous cases in which homeowners filed “suit in various state and federal courts against homebuilders, developers, installers, realtors, brokers, suppliers, importers, exporters, distributors, and manufacturers who were involved with the Chinese drywall,” Fallon explained.
Because of commonalities in the various cases, in June 2009 all federal cases involving Chinese drywall were transferred and consolidated for pretrial proceedings in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana.
The Chinese drywall in the present case was manufactured by Shandong Taihe Dongxin Co. Ltd., which on Sept. 10, 2007, changed its name to Taishan Gypsum Co. Ltd. Taishan is headquartered in Tai’an, China, about 250 miles south of Beijing, according to the law firm of Seeger Weiss LLP. The plaintiffs filed their initial complaint in Virginia on May 1, 2009.
The Virginia homeowners — William and Deborah Morgan, Preston and Rachael McKellar, Frederick and Vanessa Michaux, J. Jerry and Inez Baldwin, Joseph and Kathy Leach, Robert and Lea Orlando, and Steven and Elizabeth Heischober — were represented by Christopher Seeger and Jeffrey Grand of New York-based Seeger Weiss, along with Richard Serpe, Gerald Meunier and Daniel Bryson of New Orleans firm Herman, Herman, Katz & Collar LLP.
The case was heard without a jury between Feb. 19 and Feb. 22.
According to court documents, evidence presented to the court showed that the “level of corrosive sulfur gases emitted by Chinese drywall in the … homes exceed the safe level established by recognized standards, peer reviewed literature, and expert opinions, and this corrosive environment has had a significant impact on the exposed property.”
In addition, the court said, “the appropriate remediation for the affected homes includes the removal of all drywall, all electrical wiring, the entire HVAC system, and many other items such as appliances, carpet, cabinetry, trim work and flooring.”
The remediation process was estimated to take four to six months to complete.
In determining the award amount for property remediation, the court used an average cost per square foot of $86, which does not include a cost for replacing windows, exterior doors, structural members, exterior siding, roof trusses, the roof, concrete and nails.
Even with remediation, the homes are expected to experience a drop in value to varying degrees as a result of the contaminated drywall, the court said.
Topics USA Legislation Virginia China
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