Nation’s First Chinese Drywall Jury Trial

Miami, Florida, June 2010 – A Miami couple was awarded $2.5 million in damages in the nation’s first Chinese drywall jury trial. Jurors found Banner Supply Company liable for knowingly selling the defective drywall used in Armin and Lisa Seifart’s $1.6 million home.

On Thursday June 17th, after a two week trial, Armin and Lisa Seifart’s attorney, Ervin A. Gonzalez of Colson Hicks Eidson, argued that Banner Supply Company had knowledge, as early as 2006, that their Chinese drywall was defective and that it sold the defective drywall to the Seifarts after entering into a confidential agreement with manufacturer Knauf Plasterboard Tianjian to not disclose the defect to others. “Banner Supply had a chance to be a national hero,” said Gonzalez. “Instead, they chose to save their own skin and didn’t disclose to others what they knew – that the drywall was defective.”

Gonzalez also argued that the Siefarts should receive more than just the $491,000 in costs of gutting and renovating their home, valued at $1.6 million and that they should also be awarded damages for loss of enjoyment of the house and for the drywall stigma that might reduce its resale value.

After deliberating for almost 12 hours, the 6 person Miami Dade jury agreed with Gonzalez and awarded the Seifarts $2.5 million in damages. “This was a very important case, not only for my clients, but for the thousands of Chinese drywall victims out there,” said Gonzalez. “The jury sent a clear message to Banner. You can’t put profits over people or sales over safety and expect to get away with it. We hope this case sets the tone for all the others out there that have suffered as a result of big companies doing bad things.”

Chinese dry wall has damaged thousands of homes in the State of Florida and other states. Banner Supply Co. is named in thousands of other lawsuits. The Seifart verdict will serve as a guide to other attorneys in those cases, as well as many others pending nationwide against other companies.