Earlier this month at the monthly
status conference for the Chinese Drywall MDL in New Orleans, representatives
of Taishan Gypsum Company indicated to the Court that they would pay a judgment
against the Chinese entity. The judgment dates to 2010, when the Court ruled
that Taishan was liable for $2.6 million to fix the homes of the seven Virginia
families. The seven families were plaintiffs in a bellwether case.
Taishan has never paid the
judgment. While another Chinese drywall manufacturer owned by Knauf paid to
remediate homes, Taishan filed multiple appeals and challenged the jurisdiction
of the MDL Court. After the Fifth Circuit denied all of Taishan’s appeals, the
company dismissed its lawyers and stopped showing up in court.
Last summer, U.S. District Judge
Eldon E. Fallon, the presiding MDL judge, found Taishan in civil and criminal
contempt of court, and barred the company, and its parent corporations, from
doing business in the United States.
At the monthly status conference,
when Judge Fallon was expected to hand down a judgment for the entire class of
Taishan homeowners (potentially more than $1 billion in damages estimated by
the amount paid out by Knauf) the company suddenly reappeared, along with a new
set of lawyers from Alston & Bird.
It is estimated that about 4,000
houses nationwide were built with Taishan’s toxic drywall. The board emitts
sulfur gases that corrode metal wiring and pipes, short-circuit electronics and
can lead to numerous respiratory ailments.
Could this about-face signal
Taishan wants to come to the table and fix the thousands of homes affected by
its product? Could this be the beginning of the end for victims of Taishan
drywall? I hope so, but it is too early to tell.
