The Virginian-Pilot
©
NORFOLK
Five Hampton Roads home-owners filed a lawsuit Friday against a local developer, a distributor and a Chinese manufacturer of defective drywall, seeking damages in excess of $5 million and class-action status.
Among the allegations in the lawsuit, filed in Norfolk's U.S. District Court, is that the companies were negligent for selling the drywall and not warning homeowners and customers that it was defective.
Such wallboard has been the focus of complaints in several states by people who say it emits a corrosive gas that damages household electrical systems and causes respiratory illness.
"The heart of the complaint was that these companies installed drywall into homes that was unfit for the purpose and in fact has now caused these homeowners to have houses they can't live in," said Richard Serpe, the plaintiffs' Norfolk attorney.
Norfolk-based Venture Supply LLC, the distributor named as a defendant in the suit, said in 2006 it imported 100,000 sheets of drywall, enough to build more than 300 homes. The drywall since has been linked to developments in Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and northeastern North Carolina.
Mark Nanavati, an attorney for Venture, declined to comment on the suit. The suit also named Shandong Taihe Dong-xin Co. Ltd, a Chinese company that has been connected to defective drywall found in homes in Florida, as a defendant. The company's parent is owned by the Chinese government and is one of China's largest new building materials manufacturers.
Other defendants include The Porter-Blaine Corp., a contractor affiliated with Venture Supply, and Harbor Walk Development LLC, which built a 240-unit Harbor Walk condominium complex in Norfolk in 2006. Wermers Development was behind the project in Ocean View but sold it to Florida-based Henin Group.
Two of the plaintiffs in the suit are Harbor Walk residents, including Michelle Germano, 59, a nurse who works from home. She said she began to smell sulfur throughout her home just months after purchasing her Harbor Walk condo in June 2006. The suit is the third filed in Hampton Roads that is connected to the distribution of Chinese-made drywall.
Last week, a couple filed suit in Virginia Beach against their builder, The Futura Group LLC, and Venture Supply, seeking more than $600,000 for damage allegedly caused by the Chinese drywall.
An insurance company also filed a dispute in Norfolk federal court against Virginia Beach-based The Dragas Cos. over claims related to Chinese drywall. So far, Dragas is the only local developer to say it is inspecting homes suspected of containing the imported drywall. Dragas has said it would pay to fix homes found to have Chinese drywall.
The company's insurer, Builders Mutual Insurance Co., wants a federal judge to decide who's responsible for any fixes related to Chinese drywall claims in the Dragas homes. Two other insurance companies are named as defendants, including the insurer for Venture Supply.
Josh Brown, (757) 446-2318, josh.brown@pilotonline.com
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No mention
I don't know about you but if my home always smells of rotten eggs I'd say that is a problem.
A lot of things can cause that. It's like people self diagnosing swine flu because it's in the news.
no difference in quality
Chinese wallboard is no different than buying any other product sold at Wal-Mart. So I don't see what's the big deal.
The Chinese
China doesn't give a rat's butt about their quality. They own and continue to buy your country's STAGGERING debt. Who in goverment is going to tell them anything. America has screwed itself; to the drywall in this case.
henry - hah, look in a
henry - hah, look in a mirror. Look at all the greed and corruption in our country. In the usa you cheat you get 100 million dollar bonus from the gov't. In China, they behead you.
Stupid money grubbing people.
How can it be anyone's fault BUT the manufacturer! No one else COULD know it wasn't up the the code it was sold for.
I hope the local developers and distributors win against the people and THEN countersue for their legal fees, and costs.
The ONLY people who should be sued, is the manufacturer of the defective materials.
Are there ANY Problems? You mean besides the Stink?
I don't know about you but if my home always smells of rotten eggs I'd say that is a problem. The other issue is that long before you can smell the problem the drywall is releasing a gas that is not only bad for your health but corrodes wiring in the wall. So the IF you have this drywall in your house IT IS A PROBLEM. It would be unwise to wait until the problem manifests itself by smell. By then, you are going to have a lot of wiring to replace.
The Chinese have really been dumb in the last decade as they have allowed corruption, greed and stupidity to ruin their reputation of making anything. At this point manufacturers, distributors, and suppliers have to start testing programs for product safety or there will be more lawsuits and deaths to come. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Hershey's and Mars had decided not to use peanuts from the now defunct and bankrupt peanut company that recently provided salmonella poisoning to hundreds. The Peanut company failed their cleanliness tests.
Are there any actual problems?
Is there any actual problems here or is this just a response to hype about someone else's claims? It would be silly and wasteful to replace something that's working just fine.
If you are a Hampton Road
If you are a Hampton Road resident that has chinese drywall in your home, please write to me at chinesedrywall_1@yahoo.com. We are a group of homeowners trying to get organized in this area to help convince the government and local officials that they have to step up and try to help the local residents just like the Mayors and Congressmen in Florida.
Lawyers needed
Dragas is the only company to step up and make things right so getting lawyers appears to be the only option that the other homeowners have. Sometimes lawyers are good!
...and just how swiftly can
...and just how swiftly can the victims expect a federal judicial decision while they are held hostage in limbo, or maybe they are in hell? If any insurance company is ordered to pay, will it be allowed to elapse more time and misery by filing appeals? I sure hope not.