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Posted on 06/18/2010 7:49:38 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Jury awards big amount in benchmark case
A jury has awarded a South Florida family $2.5 million in a benchmark defective Chinese drywall case.
Armin and Lisa Seifart won the judgment in a Miami-Dade civil court Friday against drywall distributor Banner Supply Company.
The jury, which had been deliberating since Thursday afternoon, returned the verdict around 5:15 p.m.
The Seifarts had been seeking at least $4.3 million in damages after they had to completely renovate their Coconut Grove home due to the noxious drywall.
"It was important to send a message to companies that they should do the right thing when the health of the public is at stake," said Armin Seifart after the verdict.
"I feel that justice was done," added Lisa Seifart. The Seifarts and their two children moved out of the $1.6 million home, which the family purchased in 2008, after they learned it had been built with the defective drywall.
They said they've spent over $700,000 renovating the home and have have to rent a second residence while the renovations take place. The Chinese drywall has been linked to possible health problems as well as ruining pipes, wiring and electronics and appliances like computers. Not to mention the bad smells.
During the two week trial, the Seifarts detailed the odd smell they noticed when they moved into the house, and claimed they weren't told about the bad drywall. They claimed Banner Supply knew about the problem and had even made an agreement to send a shipment of 100,000 pounds of the drywall back to the Chinese manufacturer a year before they bought their home.
Banner Supply admitted the drywall was bad but said the money the Seifarts were seeking was unreasonable. Banner attorney Todd Ehrenreich said an appeal would be considered.
"We're very disappointed in the verdict," he said. The lawsuit is the first jury trial to decide the drywall issue and could open the doors for hundreds of other homeowners who have filed similar lawsuits throughout the country.
Ping
“The Seifarts said the drywall caused a bad smell”..
This article stinks......
I am sure Home Depot and Lowes sold a lot of this crap. Wait for the law suit against them.
Wal*Mart is the worse of the Chinese importers, maybe people should go after them a little for defective Chinese goods?
Thanks for the ping and all of your pings. Very interesting.
"Diversity is our STRENGTH"TM
Cheers!
Don’t Eat Chinese drywall !!!,,,er,,,no wait...;0)
I don’t get it...why didn’t they sue the manufacturer? They were only the “retailer” per se.
Maybe they were afraid the Chinese manufacturer would pay the claim back in worthless US bonds?
I actually approve of crazy law suits to penalize companies for importing Chinese crap. Then, they might think about finding better manufacturers and saving our union from Communist domination
let’s see now, you are in the retail business and you purchase materials from all over the world....one of your products injures someone....why would that person sue you rather than the manufacturer of the product????????Because you have insurance and money, and the manufacturer(the responsible party) is in Bangla-Desh and has Billions of dollars in assets and a legal staff......get it????get the money from whoever is closest. A suit for damages of over 4 million dollars for aa house that they paid 1-6 million for???????Juries in this country are nuts
We don’t use drywall here in the South. We use sheetrock.
I was suprised to learn that 80% of the garlic consumed in the US is imported from China.
I was too,Blam,,,
We buy from a local guy,,,
He has a small farm and a stand where he sells produce,,,
I just wish he would grow more,,,
Sometimes the local “farmers market” on Saturday but we
have to get there early...;0)
You are correct to blame the companies buying this stuff from China. Why do they think they can drop all U.S. standards for quality control just because they bought it overseas.
Still, there will be companies that continue to think if they hire Chinese nationals to run their factories over there that they will save money.
It used to be the factory moved to China and at least some Americans kept their jobs by moving over to maintain quality. Now some of these companies think saving $100,000 a year is a savings.
Guess this company learned it does not work that way. I say good. I hope it bankrupts them.
Good one!
Would that be anything like gypsum plaster pressed between two thick sheets of paper, then kiln dried. That's what we use here.
Like the Wallboard my neighbor used, better than the Plasterboard that was used in my other neighbor’s house..
LOL,,,I’ll have to pass on the ice cream,,,
I have some growing at the old house that some of my kin
brought over on the boat from Alsace-Lorraine ,,,
Very strong,,,
Sadly the figs and grapes all died...
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