NEW ORLEANS, LA -- A federal class-action lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in New Orleans against Knauf Plasterboard Tainjin Co. Ltd., a Chinese company that manufactured drywall homeowners believe is corroding their homes and making them ill.
The 591-page suit hopes to shed light on the problem on this particular brand of defective drywall as plaintiffs and defendants figure out how many people are affected and how much it will cost to repair the damage.
Over 2,100 people signed up to be a part of the lawsuit against KPT by last Friday's deadline.
Lead counsel in the national litigation, Russ Herman, says an additional six hundred people were too late to be included in the federal suit, but that he plans to roll them into another complaint he plans to file overseas.
New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton is the lead plaintiff in the case against Knauf Plasterboard Tainjin because he was one of the first in Louisiana to report problems linking bad drywall to failing electronic equipment and his family's illnesses.
Earlier this year Payton and his family moved out of their Mandeville house, built after Hurricane Katrina hit the area in 2005, then tore it apart piece-by-piece. They took photos of the evidence and stored components in a warehouse where KPT, the manufacturer, could inspect them.
Kerry Miller, lead defense counsel for KPT, said his company's problems are limited to four states, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, because its drywall was only imported into Louisiana and Florida ports.
There are multiple manufacturers of the Chinese drywall that is believed to be causing problems in homes in 32 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.
More than twenty-two hundred reports of defective Chinese drywall related to corrosion or health problems have been filed with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
A series of test cases will begin in early 2010 to begin answering the questions of why Chinese drywall is causing problems and help attorneys assign a value for the damages.
The tests will enable lawyers to get clarity on the issue without having to go to trial in all the 2,100 situations against Knauf Plasterboard Tainjin.
In January, proceedings in Virgina are scheduled to go forward against Taishan Gyspum, a Chinese company that also manufactured the problematic drywall.
Herman said if the the plaintiffs in that case are successful, they will seize ships carrying the company's products, sell them to raise money to pay off the judgment, and stop all imports of the company's products into the United States.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's official Chinese drywall information center website can be found
here.
Source: nola.com
