On Monday, the owners of about 80 Homestead houses will finally get their day in court, hoping to get the money they want to fix the emotional and physical damage they have experienced because of defective imported drywall.

But some of the houses in the same neighborhood, constructed by the same builder, showing all the same signs of corrosion and complications caused by tainted Chinese drywall, won’t be a part of the case.

Those 38 homes are now bank-owned, but the mortgage holders failed to respond to requests to have their properties’ drywall tested and possibly join the class of people suing Miami drywall distributor Banner Supply, attorney Victor Diaz said at a hearing in Miami-Dade Circuit Court on Wednesday. This is the first class-action lawsuit in the country over the defective import.

“I point out as a disgruntled taxpayer . . . the taxpayers will pay for the write off of those loans through the TARP process,” Diaz said, referring to a federal bailout of major banks in 2008. He said banks could have joined the class-action suit and laid claim to damages from drywall manufacturers and distributors to fix the houses they now own, but have chosen not to.

“I think it’s a symptom of the foreclosure crisis in this country,” he said, referring to the avalanche of foreclosures swamping many lenders. Financial institutions associated with the foreclosed properties were contacted by mail and phone, and Diaz’s staff even pasted bright orange stickers on front doors hoping to get their attention.

Some of the homes in question would have been lost to foreclosure because of the economic downturn. In other cases, homeowners moved out when they discovered they had Chinese drywall, wanting to escape the smell, breathing problems and frequent appliance breakdowns. They juggled mortgage and rent payments for a while, but like lead plaintiffs Melissa and Jason Harrell in this case, they couldn’t keep up with those costs as months — and years — have passed.

One estimate for repairs to Harrells’ home was for about $240,000 or about $78 per square foot.

“Magnify that on a national scale,” Diaz said last month, noting those repairs should be the responsibility of companies in the drywall supply chain.

The Harrell case will go to trial with 79 plaintiffs instead of 117 because of the nonresponse from banks. The plaintiffs include homeowners who bought properties at foreclosure auctions without knowing they had Chinese drywall.

About 3,600 complaints about Chinese drywall from 38 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, and Puerto Rico have been filed with the Consumer Product Safety Commission about Chinese drywall.

The majority of the complaints have come from Florida.

In June, a Miami-Dade jury found Banner and other drywall-related companies should pay a Coconut Grove couple $2.5 million for damages and expenses.