Defective Chinese drywall was sold in the U.S. from 2001 through 2009, with the largest volume installed between 2004 and 2006 during a domestic drywall shortage. It has a chemical component that corrodes copper and other metals, accelerating deterioration of air conditioning coils, refrigerators, other household appliances, and electrical wiring throughout a house. It's also known to cause health issues in humans.
Identifying defective drywall isn't always straightforward — many homes were built with a mix of Chinese and U.S. drywall, and factually confirming a problem can require sending samples out for lab testing, which gets expensive.
You can do some basic checking yourself: inspect exposed electrical wiring for a black coating forming on the non-plastic components, which can indicate a problem. If air conditioning coils are deteriorating faster than expected, an HVAC technician may be able to tell you whether Chinese drywall is a possible cause. Under hot, humid conditions, affected drywall can also give off an odor often described as rotten eggs or sulfur — though not every affected home will have a noticeable smell.
How many Florida homes are affected? An estimated 35,000 or more homes were built in full or in part with defective Chinese drywall in Florida — roughly 35% of all homes built nationwide with the material between 2005 and 2009.
The litigation over defective Chinese-manufactured drywall (Case No. 09-2047) ran for roughly a decade before court proceedings concluded in January 2020. The Taishan Settlement Agreement created a $248 million fund to compensate claimants whose damages were attributable to drywall manufactured by the Taishan entities.
For comparison, the earlier Knauf Settlement (a separate settlement with a different manufacturer) provided for complete remediation of affected properties in addition to attorney fees. Several class members objected to the Taishan settlement on the grounds that it didn't provide enough money to make them whole or fully remediate their homes, and pointed to that disparity. The court acknowledged the Taishan settlement was smaller and didn't cover 100% of remediation costs, but noted that settlements generally don't make claimants completely whole.
Of the $248 million fund, the court's order set attorney fees at 19% — $47,120,000 — to be paid exclusively from the settlement funds. The order also noted that petitioning attorneys could seek fees "totaling in the aggregate up to 32% of the Settlement Funds," which would equal $79,360,000 if petitioned for and approved.
| Metric | Amount |
|---|---|
| Total settlement fund | $248,000,000 |
| Attorney fees at 19% (as awarded) | $47,120,000 |
| Attorney fees ceiling at 32% (if petitioned/approved) | $79,360,000 |
| Class counsel hours logged (Jan. 1, 2014 – Aug. 31, 2019) | 109,000+ hours |
| Effective hourly rate at 19% fee award | $432.29/hour |
The court's order does not disclose what the litigation itself cost the attorneys to pursue, only what they were awarded from the fund.
Quoted language is drawn from the court's final approval order in Case No. 09-2047 (In re: Chinese-Manufactured Drywall Products Liability Litigation).