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New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Peyton Lead Plaintiff in Chinese Drywall Lawsuit
Until now, homes that are uninhabitable because of allegedly defective Chinese drywall have been one of those under-the-radar stories that few people besides those directly affected notice. That’s about to change, because the head coach of the New Orleans Saints is now the lead plaintiff in a federal lawsuit against suppliers of the drywall.
New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Peyton is the lead plaintiff in a 591-page class action lawsuit against Knauf Plasterboard Tainjin Co. Ltd., a Chinese company that manufactured drywall that is believed to be corroding homes and making people sick.
The suit, filed December 9 in U.S. District Court in New Orleans on behalf of people with this particular brand of drywall, has 2,100 plaintiffs. Attorney Daniel Becnel Jr. said Payton was selected as the lead plaintiff because he was among the first people in Louisiana to link news reports about bad drywall to televisions, computers and electrical equipment failing in his Mandeville home and his family becoming ill. Payton and his family moved out of their house, and then systematically took it apart. They took photos of the evidence along the way, and then stored the damaged components in a warehouse.
There are multiple manufacturers of drywall that is believed to be causing problems in people's homes in 32 states. Estimates have ranged as high as 40,000 households affected nationwide and 3,000 to 7,000 in Louisiana. So far, about 2,500 people have registered with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to say they have a problem.
Drywall Litigation
The consolidated national litigation over Chinese drywall is taking place in New Orleans, and a series of test cases will begin early next year to sift through the questions and help attorneys assign values to the damage. Test cases enable the lawyers in the case to get clarity on issues in the litigation without having to go to a full trial of all 2,100 situations. The information could later be used to guide where the litigation goes next or settle big numbers of cases.
In January, proceedings in a set of cases from Virginia with drywall manufactured by a Chinese company called Taishan Gyspum, which was found in default by Judge Eldon Fallon because the company failed to show up for the proceedings, will begin.
Russ Herman, lead plaintiff counsel in the national litigation, said that if plaintiffs are successful at getting a verdict against Taishan Gypsum, they will seize ships carrying the company’s product and sell them to raise money to pay the judgment and stop imports of the company’s products into the United States. Herman may be overstating his case by saying that. Even if his clients are successful, a judge would have to order any seizure of ships. Because such an action could have foreign policy implications, the federal government might not allow it.
Saints Coach Lead Plaintiff in Chinese Drywall Lawsuit (New Orleans Times Picayune 12/10)
Coach Sean Peyton Comments on Lawsuit (video clip)
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s official Chinese drywall information center website can be found here.
December 15, 2009
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