Miami-Dade Family First to Take on Chinese Drywall
Homeowners hope lawsuit will bring them relief.
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WASHINGTON - JUNE 10: Worker Ramiro Lizarazu installs drywall June 10, 2002 at the Pentagon in Washington, DC . The Pentagon reconstruction effort, dubbed Phoenix Project, aims to rebuild the 400,000 square feet of space that was destroyed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It is scheduled to reopen on the first anniversary of the attacks. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
The demolition was underway Wednesday at a Miami-Dade home, as workers ripped out the drywall, baseboards, ceilings.
A big job, all being done because of the danger posed by Chinese drywall.
The owners of the home are the first in line to get a crack at recovering the huge losses they have suffered because of the dangerous drywall.
Francisco Camposano hopes a Miami-Dade jury soon will be handing out big bucks.
"There's no words to express the frustration of it, to have to move out tear it apart and rebuild it," Camposano lamented.
Camposano said his daughter is getting sick in their home and he's already replaced the air conditioning units twice. Now they're packing up to move.
Camposano said he found out about the problem when the home next door, built by the same builder, was found to have Chinese drywall. It's now closed, no one but workers allowed in.
"My youngest daughter, she moved in when she was five months old," Camposano said. "Since then, she's been allergic, she's sneezing, coughing, runny nose."
The first Chinese drywall lawsuit may open the door for more than 30,000 Florida homeowners to get money to pay for rentals and to renovate the homes they had to leave and insurance won't pay to repair.
For the first time, citizens will get a chance to say what their neighbors should get for all their trouble.
"This is a very important case, it's a landmark case because it's the very first case against a distributor of Chinese drywall in the country," said attorney Ervin Gonzales. "It is also the first case in Florida and it's the first national jury trial case in the country."
Gonzales said the Miami-Dade jurors will hear that gases from Chinese drywall caused a fire hazard, destroyed plumbing and electrical systems, leaving homeowners in a bind.
"This is what they call a bell weather trial or a sample trial and the findings of this case will be applied in future cases as well," Gonzales said.
Francisco's builder said he's a victim too. The drywall supplier didn't return calls for comment.
Posted Thursday, May 13, 2010 - 7:06 AM EST
