alabama construction law
alabama construction law

CHINESE DRYWALL

I. Overview of Chinese Drywall Cases.

Cases are being filed across the southeastern United States involving drywall manufactured in China. In very general terms the plaintiffs are claiming that the drywall contains excessively high amounts of materials such as sulfur, strontium, and iron which causes an odor and results in the corrosion of metal components. Some plaintiffs also are claiming personal injury due to the drywall. The Consumer Products Safety Commission (“CPSC”) and Environmental Protection Agency have released various statements and test results regarding Chinese drywall. Some of those can be found below:

II. Multi-District Litigation and the Chinese Drywall Cases.

Numerous Chinese drywall cases have been consolidated into a multi-district litigation (MDL) forum that is pending in the United States District Court in the Eastern District of Louisiana before Judge Eldon E. Fallon. Attached is a minute report from a September 2009 status hearing that was issued by Judge Fallon regarding those MDL cases. As set out in that report, the Court has announced plans to conduct a handful of “bellwether” Chinese drywall cases to be tried in January of 2010. The parties in the MDL case have submitted various labels of drywall per a court order and photographic images of those markings can be found at: http://www.laed.uscourts.gov/Drywall/DrywallMarkings.htm.

III. Issues Regarding the Defense of the Chinese Drywall Case.

Defendants in the Chinese drywall cases include manufacturers, distributors, exporters, retailers, suppliers, builders and installers. The cases are being aggressively defended by the defendants and numerous defenses are being made to counter the claims asserted by the plaintiffs.

IV. Reports/Findings

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