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DAILY BUSINESS REVIEW December 26, 2013

Legal team exposes manufacturer’s cover-up in tainted Chinese drywall case

Case: Jeffrey robin and elisa robin v. Knauf Plasterboard (Tianjin) et alCase No.: 10-59323 cA 42Description: Product liabilityFiling date: Nov. 9, 2010Trial dates: Oct. 21-Nov. 8, Nov. 18-Nov. 22, 2013Judge: miami-Dade circuit Judge beatrice butchkoPlaintiff attorney: Victor Diaz and Jorge Lorenzo, V.m. Diaz & Partners, miami beach; erik W. Scharf, Scharf Appellate Group, miamiDefense attorney: Joy Lundeen and David Pollack, Farah rajani bridges, Fort Lauderdale; Felix rodriguez and maria Fehretdinov, Stearns Weaver miller Weissler Alhadeff & Sitterson, miami; Steve Glickstein, Jay mayesh and robert Grass, Kaye Scholer, New York; michael Peterson, Peterson & espino, miami; Kerrie miller, Frilot, New Orleans; eduardo rasco and Steve bimston, rosenthal, rosenthal, rasco, Kaplan, AventuraJury award: $7.125 millionDetails: Jeffrey and elisa robin, who lived in miami’s upscale coconut

Verdicts & settlements

j. albert diaz

Attorneys Jorge Lorenzo, left, and Victor Diaz, right were joined by Erik W. Scharf, above right, in winning a $7.125 million judgment for Jeffrey and Elisa Robin, whose upscale Miami home was built with defective Chinese drywall.

Verdicts & settlements

Grove neighborhood, were among the homeowners across the country who discovered their home was built with defective chinese drywall. more than 661,877 defective chinese dry-wall boards were brought to Florida. many were installed in new homes during the construction boom and in home repairs following a rash of hur-ricanes in 2004 and 2005, according to trial evidence.Like other homeowners, the robins learned months after moving into their new home that the drywall emitted sulfur fumes and corroded household metals and wiring. The couple also complained of head-aches, upper respiratory irritation and nosebleeds.The robins moved out of the house in February 2010, paid for remediation out of their own pockets and moved back last January. Jeffrey robin is an associate at Akerman in miami. elisa robin is a travel consultant.Plaintiffs case: The couple decided to opt out of a global settlement in multidistrict litigation in New Orleans federal court.“The robins always wanted to stand alone in a state court action. They wanted individualized treat-ment of their case,” Diaz said. “They had concerns that the unique facts of their case would get loss in a mass tort context.”Their lawsuit was filed against drywall manufacturer Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin china and its German affili-ate, Knauf Gips. Also named as de-

fendants were miami-area compa-nies: installer Sunshine Drywall Inc., importer La Suprema enterprise Inc./La Suprema Trading Inc., distributor banner Supply co. and builder F&L Developers Inc.While thousands of other chinese drywall cases were filed against the Knauf defendants, none made it to trial, all settling beforehand. The robins were the first to go to trial and to obtain verdict against Knauf.During discovery, Diaz and his team proved the Knauf defendants re-peatedly lost or destroyed critical evidence, including early test results and key emails showing the German parent had early knowledge of the defective nature of the product and endeavored to conceal the defect from the American consuming pub-lic. Samples of all the raw materials used to manufacture the drywall were collected but destroyed by Knauf Gips. butchko sanctioned the Knauf de-fendants, striking a key defense and granting a spoliation instruc-tion at trial. The defendants “deliberately de-stroyed this physical evidence and some related testing or test results,” butchko wrote.Defense case: Lundeen, lead coun-sel, did not return a call for comment by deadline. Diaz said before trial Knauf blamed the Shandong Luneng Tai mountain mine Development Group co. Ltd. for the contamination. butchko’s

sanctions concluded Knauf had evi-dence the drywall included synthet-ic gypsum and other raw materials that could have been the source of the sulfur.At trial, Knauf blamed its chinese subsidiary, Diaz said. He said Knauf also blamed the builder and installer, knowing they had gone out of business. The defendants also said the robins could have fixed their home for less money and in less timeOutcome: After a three-week trial, the jury awarded the full claim of $1.125 million in compensatory damages. It assigned 64 percent fault to Knauf Gips, 30 percent to KPT, 5 percent to banner and 1 percent to La Suprema, F&L Developers and Sunshine Drywall.Following a weeklong punitive dam-ages trial, the jury awarded $6 mil-lion against the Knauf defendants. Comments: “I was not only sur-prised, I was shocked. In 28 years of practicing law, I have not seen this level of clear, corporate malfeasance and deception,” Diaz said. “There was a well-orchestrated, high-level effort by the Knauf defendants to suppress the truth, including misleading the media, misleading consumers and misleading the government of the United States.”Post-Verdict: The defendants have filed a motion for new trial.

—John Pacenti

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