Insurance Dispute Lawyer Blog

In what may be a smoking gun of the evidentiary sort, federal investigators have found a chemical difference in the composure of Chinese drywall when compared to those products made within the country. While the discovery has yet to be the clear-cut indictment of the manufacturers of the imported wallboard, it is significant because it shows a clear difference between that drywall causing problems and domestic drywall that remains to be safe and not a cause for concern.

The New York Times reports

Federal investigators reported Thursday that imported Chinese drywall that homeowners have linked to health problems and odors had higher levels of some chemicals than its domestic counterparts.

The Virginia-Pilot profiles a few families harmed by Chinese drywall and the struggle they face in this dire time period. Within this piece is an interesting statement by a local elected official appealing to banks to avoid foreclosure on uninhabitable properties that have Chinese drywall installed within them.

The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission is investigating air-quality issues related to the drywall and plans to release some of its findings today and additional reports in the coming weeks. Several local homeowners also have sued the companies that manufactured and imported the drywall.

In the meantime, dozens of families across Hampton Roads face a dilemma similar to the Dunaways’: Continue to live in a home that could be making them sick, or move out and stack a rent payment on top of the mortgage bill.

The Associated Press recently ran a piece outlining the delays that will be faced in the $5 million assistance program established in Louisiana to assist in the removal of Chinese drywall in homes. While the project was set to help homeowners repair the wrongs created by the toxic wallboard, it appears that a myriad of bureaucracy and red tape may slow the track to recovery.

The program would be limited to homeowners with the drywall who received aid through the Road Home program after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The help would only flow once federal officials devise a national standard for drywall testing and remediation, and state officials acknowledged it’s not clear how long it might take to develop such standards.

Federal officials also would have to agree to spend the $5 million in federal hurricane recovery aid on the Chinese drywall program.

Consumer Product Safety Commission chairman Inez Tenenbaum’s visit to China is completed but the direct indictment of the foreign nation’s faulty drywall was not achieved, despite progress in the way of opening dialogue and encouraging cooperation. While Tenenbaum’s visit shows promise in that a visit by an American official puts pressure on China to cooperate with pending litigation claims, that the chairman failed to place blame on the manufacturers and demand results and response is going to disappoint some.

The Wall Street Journal reports

The new chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission wrapped up her first visit to China with a call for domestic suppliers to “do what is fair and just” in responding to allegations from U.S. homeowners over damage blamed on defective Chinese-made drywall.

A quick news piece emerging from the Associated Press today regarding a couple who had previously had their policy renewal refused because their home had Chinese drywall installed within it:

Citizens Property of Florida has reversed their decision and chosen to insure the couple after all.

The AP reports

A great editorial published yesterday by the Fort Myers News-Press describes the technical and legal battle that the idea of a drywall recall faces. While recalls of products have a slant towards Chinese-made items (reportedly “60 percent of 475 products recalled per year are Chinese”), the problem with drywall, it seems, is that it is not a distributed item like a toy but, instead, a supply for a future product. While that may seem muddled or confusing, that is the exact point of the piece. Such confusion dominates the very nature of recalls and accountability for said recalls and Chinese drywall is anything but simple.

Mary Wozniak writes

If the toy is made in China and a U.S. company like Mattel is the distributor, the brand-name company will be cooperative, because it wants to maintain its reputation and stay in business, said Marshall Meyer, a professor at Wharton School and a global expert on Chinese business.

The lead-up to Wednesday’s summit on Chinese drywall in China has been looked forward to by many as a great chance for headway to be made on rectifying the faulty wallboard installed in people’s homes and getting these families into safe homes. While some may be optimistic, others remain doubtful any changes or productive resolutions will come out of the forum.

The Fort Myers News-Press reports

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Orlando, who has led the congressional charge to tackle the problem, isn’t expecting any answers from the summit.

Also emerging from Friday was Florida Senator Bill Nelson’s call for the federal government to help provide funds necessary to remove Chinese drywall from those homes it was installed in this decade. Moving to continue the federal government’s recent movement towards helping those with the toxic wallboard installed and build momentum against the Chinese companies who sold the product is a resounding success. Further, the move by Nelson demonstrates yet another section of the United States government working to make change.

In a letter sent late Friday to state House and Senate leaders, the Florida Democrat -[Bill Nelson] asks lawmakers to adopt a program like one in Louisiana that sets aside $5 million in Community Development Block Grants to help homeowners affected by toxic, corrosive drywall.

“Defective Chinese drywall is ruining the health and lives of countless Floridians,” Nelson says in the letter, noting that several insurers have dropped policyholders whose homes contain the defective drywall.

News coming out of yesterday’s Wall Street Journal is extremely encouraging for those families suffering with Chinese drywall:

The new chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission said she would ask China to help pay for the billions of dollars in damage to U.S. homes blamed on Chinese-made drywall.

“I will find out if any discussions are going on in China about the costs, are they prepared to participate in providing funds, and what would it take for that to occur,” CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum said in an interview ahead of a trip to China next week for a biennial U.S.-China consumer product safety summit.