Chinese Drywall Trial Starts In Miami, FL

June 8th, 2010 by Jason A. Kapit, Esq.
Categories: Headlines, Home Owners, Hot Topics, Lawsuits

Country’s First Trial Involving Domestic Distributor

The Chinese Drywall case against Banner Supply was underway with jury selection Monday morning in front of Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Joseph P. Farina. The suit alleges that Banner was aware of the product’s defects and never informed customers.

Determination Made Against Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin

A federal judge already decided earlier this year that the German & China-based drywall maker (Knauf) had manufactured sub-standard products which release sulfur at higher levels than normal, causing corrosion of electrical wiring and metals. But this is the first time that homeowners are taking a building supply distributor.

A Little Background

For those that like numbers, an estimated 550 million pounds of Chinese drywall was imported between 2004 and 2007 (enough to complete 60,000 homes). The concentration of lawsuits however, seems to be overwhelming in Florida, representing over 50% of all claims filed thus far. One South Florida plaintiff’s attorney rightly commented, “The world has not seen a problem like before. You’re being attacked by your own walls in your house. it’s destroying your investment and stealing your peace.”

In Defense, It Was Not All About Cost-Cutting

many of us would like to just assume that distributors and suppliers had a choice when it came to drywall product but actually, it was not that simple. During the height of the housing boom in 2006, a majority of U.S. drywall manufacturers shut down operations to conduct mandatory maintenance. Other manufacturers stateside simply couldn’t keep up with demand forcing distributors to look abroad. So the intent on distributors to simply be more profitable seems less likely.

The Start Of One Big Mess

Bottom Line: He said, she said will be going for years. The drywall is defective and is causing major problems. That is a non-issue or will be soon. the more important questions are who is responsible, how do we right the situation if a safe and least intrusive way and make the families dealing with these issues whole? Stay tuned for more update soon.

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Tags: banner supply, chinese drywall, colson hicks, kanuf, lawsuit, legal, luxury real estate, miami

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 8th, 2010 at 9:52 am and is filed under Headlines, Home Owners, Hot Topics, Lawsuits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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