The trial is cancelled.
The next federal bellwether trial on Chinese drywall was set to begin in the New Orleans courtroom of U.S. District Court Judge Eldon E. Fallon on Monday.
But the there has been a a last-minute settlement reached between Chinese drywall manufacturer Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Co. Ltd. and plaintiffs in the two Louisiana cases set to go to trial next week.
The settlement, which has not been signed but could be finalized within a matter of hours, will involve a comprehensive remediation of the two Louisiana homes, similar to what Judge Fallon mandated in his prior rulings and what the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has recommended in its interim guidelines. It involves ripping out all the drywall, along with entire electrical system and other components.
Both sites — a single-family home and a duplex — were built with a mix of Chinese and domestic brands of drywall. Consequently, the bellwether trial, which had been scheduled for two weeks in Fallon’s courtroom, will be canceled.
This is great news for the thousands of plaintiff’s in the MDL, including many of our clients.
