Construction Litigation Law Blog

As of last week, the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) stated that they had received more than 500 reports from homeowners in 19 states and the District of Columbia who believe their home was constructed with defective Chinese drywall. Due to the increasing number of US homeowners affected by the defective building product, officials from China’s General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (ASIQ) office arrived in the US June 15, 2009 in order to investigate the reported problems with drywall made in their country.

According to recent reports, roughly 309 million square feet of drywall from China was imported into the United States during the housing boom from 2004 to 2007. To date, the defective drywall has been reported in Florida, Louisiana, Virginia, Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Officials from the CPSC met with ASIQ regulators earlier this month to discuss technical issues involving Chinese drywall and traveled with a CPSC investigative team in order to observe inspections and samplings conducted by the CPSC in one home in Florida and two homes in Louisiana.

If you suspect your home may be built with defective Chinese drywall, contact us here for a free no obligation case review.

I recently found an article online entitled, US senators call for Chinese drywall probe. This article is one of the best articles I’ve found recently discussing the Chinese drywall problem. The article includes an overview of the problem, an explanation of what Chinese drywall is and why it is causing so many problems for United States homeowners, and the status of pending litigation claims in the US. The article also includes a discussion on the manufacturers responsible for producing the defective drywall, the steps several US Senators have taken over the past several months in order to not only correct the problem, but prevent it from happening again in the future and a discussion on the estimated cost to repair the homes damaged by the Chinese drywall.

I urge everyone who is not familiar with the current status of the Chinese Drywall problem to read the article. You can read the full article online here.

If you suspect your home may be built with defective Chinese drywall, contact us here for a free no obligation case review.

Three United States Senators from Florida and Virginia have appealed to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requesting that the costs incurred to homeowners affected by Chinese Drywall be deductible for federal tax purposes. In a letter sent Tuesday June 16, 2009, the Senators ask the IRS to include Chinese Drywall in the list of “unexpected events” which are currently listed as deductible under section 165(h) of the tax code. Fire, storms and theft are currently included in the list of the IRS’ unexpected events.

The Senators argue that homeowners are facing thousands of dollars in repairs, and most families cannot cover the costs associated with the repairs as well as the cost of staying elsewhere while their home is being fixed. The Senators also request that inspections go beyond that of individual homes and include tests to determine what materials were used in commercial and public buildings.

Chinese drywall has been found in several condominiums and was recently discovered in a new hotel still under construction in Chesapeake, Virginia. Additionally, it has been suspected to have been used in the construction of a Tampa day care center built just this year.

If you suspect your home may be built with defective Chinese drywall, contact us here for a free no obligation case review.

Florida Attorney General, Bill McCollum, issued a consumer advisory warning to homeowners in Florida who have been affected by Chinese Drywall alerting them of scams related to the defective drywall situation. The Attorney General’s office has received two reports of scams related to the Chinese drywall problem. The first includes bogus tests being conducted in order to determine the presence of Chinese drywall in the homes, and the second includes a company claiming to have a remedy for the corroded pipes and coils in the homes.

The Attorney General noted that a homeowner can determine if defective drywall is present in his or her home by asking the homebuilder or a qualified air conditioner technician to conduct a professional visual inspection. The Attorney General warns that the presence of defective imported drywall cannot be determined by “testing” the air in the home, and if the substance is found during a visual inspection, it cannot be remedied with a spray or an ozone generator. Reports have also found that these bogus remedies may make the problem worse.

According to the Florida Department of Health, homeowners should be aware the following scams which builders have reported to the Attorney General’s Office:

- Sale of bogus test kits. These can be expensive, often costing thousands of dollars, and are generally ineffective. The presence of defective imported drywall can only be determined through visual inspection.

- Solicited home inspections costing thousands of dollars by “experts” with no apparent qualification. Homeowners should beware of cold calls and door-to-door solicitors.

- Sale of sprays and applications which allegedly claim to miraculously cure the corrosion problem. Not only are these products ineffective, the addition of moisture may accelerate the corrosion problem.

- Sale of ozone generators. Ozone will actually increase the chemical reaction between the drywall and copper and the corrosion will be accelerated.

If you suspect your home may be built with defective Chinese drywall, contact us here for a free no obligation case review.

Inez M. Tenenbaum, President Obama’s nominee for head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, faced questions yesterday regarding the nationwide concern over defective Chinese drywall during her U.S. Senate confirmation hearing. Tenenbaum appeared before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and although she made no references as to the specific steps she would take to remedy the problem, she did promise that if she was selected to head the Commission, she would work tirelessly to find a resolution to the Chinese drywall issue.

Tenebaum’s plans include meeting with scientists and organizing a briefing during her first week on the job which would be aimed at putting together a specific schedule for when new drywall testing and conclusions were to be reached.

Tenebaum could potentially receive a final confirmation vote by the Senate before the July 4th recess. However, Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) informed the committee that any written questions for Tenenbaum were to be submitted by the end of the day, which indicates that a final decision could be made sooner, rather than later.

If you suspect your home may be built with defective Chinese drywall, contact us here for a free no obligation case review.

Yesterday, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation transferred 10 Chinese drywall cases to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana for coordinated pretrial proceedings. The JPML said it would treat dozens of additional cases as potential ad-ons. The ruling came roughly three weeks after the panel initially reviewed the matter at its May hearing session, in which it considered the possibility of consolidating four actions in the Southern District of Florida, three actions in the Middle District of Florida and one action each in the Northern District of Florida, the Eastern District of Louisiana and the Southern District of Ohio.

The panel found that the 10 claims include specific similar facts, which all occurred in the Eastern District of Louisiana. Grouping the cases will assist in the elimination of duplicative discovery, prevent inconsistent pretrial rulings and conserve the resources of the parties and the judiciary.

The panel assigned the cases to Judge Eldon E. Fallon, who it said “has extensive experience in multidistrict litigation as well as the ability and temperament to steer this complex litigation on a steady and expeditious course.”

You can view the Transfer Order online here.

If you suspect your home may be built with defective Chinese drywall, contact us here for a free no obligation case review.

Donald B. Brenner, Shareholder and Chair of Stark & Stark's Construction Litigation Group, presented materials related to minimizing acrimony and conflict while preserving an Association's rights with respect to construction defects and/or repairs, in conjunction with David J. Byrne, Esquire, during a seminar entitled "Managing Costs and Risks in Challenging and Uncertain Economic Times". The presentation was held at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, New Jersey on Wednesday, May 13, 2009.

Mr. Brenner focused his presentation on transition, building defects, alternative dispute resolution and how associations should review insurance policies for recovery and/or possible settlement prior to litigation.

Last Thursday the Florida Department of Health completed another round of drywall testing aimed at determining which chemicals in Chinese drywall are responsible for emitting the sulfur gases. Earlier tests conducted on Florida homes this past March found hydrogen sulfide, carbon disulfide and carbonyl sulfide coming from several Chinese drywall samples taken from the homes.

The new tests used a method called High Performance Liquid Chromatography. The test isolated particles in the drywall which researchers believe are responsible for releasing the gases. The drywall samples being studied are from the same samples of drywall which were collected for the previous round of testing.

The Florida Health Department hopes that these new tests will help to identify which chemicals in the drywall are responsible for the gas emission. Some findings have already been internally compiled but that report will not be released for another few weeks.

The next step for both state and federal authorities is to conduct air quality tests, though this form of testing has previously proven to be very difficult. The difficulty lies in fact that method for taking air samples from homes containing Chinese drywall has been called into question. Some believe previous tests used an unreliable method of transporting the air samples from the affected homes to the lab.

If you suspect your home may be built with defective Chinese drywall, contact us here for a free no obligation case review.

Louisiana Senator, Julie Quinn, has introduced a bill which would allow homeowners in Louisiana to sue manufacturers, distributors, and suppliers for damages incurred by the defective Chinese Drywall used to build their homes. Senator Quinn’s proposed legislation would allow Louisiana residents to collect 100% of the damages they have incurred due to the defective drywall, in addition to attorneys fees, from the manufacturer, distributor, or seller of the contaminated drywall. Current legislation only allows homeowners to collect a percentage of the damages from the manufacturer, distributor, or seller.

While homeowners affected by the defective drywall are obviously in favor of the proposed legislation, some local business owners are not. Though they understand the devastating effects the drywall has had on homeowners, if the bill is passed, local business owners who were unaware of the effects could be put out of business and forced into bankruptcy within in a matter of days after the bill is passed.

If you suspect your home may be built with defective Chinese drywall, contact us here for a free no obligation case review.

A duplex in Fort Myers, Florida underwent tests last Friday to see if pumping chlorine dioxide into homes containing Chinese drywall will reverse the effects of the gasses emitted by the defective drywall. The theory behind the test is that bacteria in the paper of Chinese drywall react with the gypsum core to emit a sulfuric gas which is responsible for corroding air-conditioning coils and other metals in homes. This reaction is believed to be the cause for the smell and so by pumping chlorine dioxide into the homes, it should remedy the problem. The tests were performed Friday June 5, 2009 and results should be available in about a month.

However, scientists, builders, lawyers and homeowners are wondering if the possible solution will actually solve the problem. Though the potential solution would save billions of dollars nationwide by eliminating the need to remove the defective drywall and rebuild thousands of homes, some are questioning if this is just a temporary fix, and wonder if more damage will still occur down the line.

We will be sure to keep a watchful eye on this possible solution and report on any and all updates we find.

If you suspect your home may be built with defective Chinese drywall, contact us here for a free no obligation case review.

At the Chinese Drywall conference I am attending in Florida, Daniel Becnel Jr. an attorney from Louisiana is presenting information on the potential health effects of prolonged exposure to Chinese Drywall.

In his experience working with affected homeowners, some common medical complaints include nose bleeding, headaches, nausea, sinus and/or allergy related issues, difficulty breathing and chemical coughs.

What I found most interesting is a conversation that his experts have had with Jorge Laguna from the Florida Department of Health. Mr. Laguna theorizes that the Chinese Drywall problem may be related to the presence of a high sulfide mineral vein at the mine which produces the raw material that was used to create the drywall. He also noted that some U.S. drywall manufacturers appear to be purchasing the Chinese material and restamping it with U.S. manufacturer nameplates.

If you suspect your home may be built with defective Chinese drywall, contact us here for a free no obligation case review.

The pending Chinese Drywall cases that have been filed are mostly class actions in Federal court. There are currently 70 + cases pending nationally. The damage claims most commonly sought in these actions are property, personal injury and medical monitoring. Since the Chinese Drywall problem is such a new phenomenon it will be years before the full medical effects of prolonged exposure to Chinese drywall will be known. Zdenek Hejzlar Ph.D., CSP, of Engineering Systems Inc. presented The Science of Drywall at today’s conference and is currently conducting controlled scientific experiments to develop a baseline of the issues that exposure to Chinese drywall can cause. You can contact him here if you are interested in receiving a copy of his soon to be released peer reviewed white paper on the Chinese Drywall problem.

The current causes of actions in the cases are negligence, strict liability for defective products, implied and express warranties, breach of contract, state specific consumer protection acts, fraudulent concealment/misrepresentation, private nuisance.

If you suspect your home may be built with defective Chinese drywall, contact us here for a free no obligation case review.