Drywall getting its day in court

MANATEE — Chinese drywall is about to get its day in court.

The first contested trial in the product-liability saga is set to begin in a New Orleans federal courtroom Monday, an early test case that homeowners, homebuilders, insurance companies, manufacturers and lawyers are closely watching because of its potential implications.

In that case, Tatum and Charlene Hernandez contend Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Co. Ltd.-produced drywall in their New Orleans-area home was “unsafe, defective and inherently dangerous.” The negligence and product-liability suit seeks property damages and reimbursement for replacing the drywall.

The case is among several hundred Chinese drywall lawsuits that have been consolidated into a single proceeding before a federal judge. The suits, many from Florida, contend the drywall emits sulfuric gases that have corroded electronics, air-conditioner coils and electrical wiring; lowered property values; and caused various health ailments such as sore throats, breathing difficulties and bloody noses.

The Hernandez’s suit was chosen to be a “bellwether” case, or a test trial focusing on limited issues within a larger, more-complex case. The trial’s focus is property damage and remediation. Future trials will determine the liability of insurance companies, the extent of personal-injury damages and other issues.

The trial’s primary goal “is to get a remediation protocol to guide future litigants,” said Scott Weinstein, a Fort Myers attorney who is on the plaintiff’s steering committee in the consolidated proceeding, but is not directly involved in the Hernandez case.

“This trial is intended to be guidance for the future,” he said.

Kerry Miller, the lead attorney for KPT in the Hernandez case, did not respond to interview requests.

Despite its limited scope, the bench trial — both sides agreed to go without a jury — likely will influence the future course of similar cases, legal observers said.

“The early cases usually set the tone for later cases,” said John Rains, an adjunct professor of construction law at Stetson University College of Law who is not involved in the drywall litigation.

The process will set compensation standards for various types of damage in different types of properties, thus making it easier to resolve the other cases.

While public attention will be focused on U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon’s final decision in Hernandez, it’s the pre-trial legal maneuvering — especially over expert witnesses — that could have a greater impact on later cases, Rains said.

Attorneys on both sides in the Hernandez suit already are challenging the other side’s experts, court records show.

KPT contends plaintiff lawyers hired an unlicensed appraiser who used unproven methods to conclude the drywall has reduced the value of the Hernandez home by 10 percent to 40 percent. KPT also says another plaintiff appraiser hired to calculate the cost of replacing appliances, televisions, toasters and other household items was told to do so under the “extraordinary assumption” that its drywall damaged those items.