Rotten trim replaced under settlement in South Carolina

Fred Horlbeck

A South Carolina law firm has sent out letters to notify Charleston County building owners of a class-action settlement in which a federal court authorized payments for replacement of manufactured exterior trim.

Owners can file claims to replace TrimBoard, also known as "ProTrim" or "Choice Trim," under a settlement approved by the U.S. District Court of South Carolina.

Charleston County residents might not be the only ones making claims, however.

TrimBoard is at issue in a second federal class action that, except for Charleston County, covers a "hurricane-susceptible" zone designated by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In both suits, plaintiffs claimed that TrimBoard, sold as window trim, corner board, soffits and other uses, is defective. They alleged that TrimBoard "prematurely deteriorates," causes water and structural damage and promotes mold as well as termites and other insects.

The defendants are Nashville, Tenn.-based Louisiana-Pacific Corp. and its ABT Building Products division.

They shipped more than 1.3 million square feet of TrimBoard into the state from about 1995 to 2005, said Paul Dominick, a Nexsen Pruet lawyer who is the plaintiffs' lead counsel in both cases.

"It's basically wood chips that are glued together, and then there's a covering that is put over it and pressed into it and wrapped around it," Dominick told South Carolina Lawyers Weekly. "The problem is that once moisture penetrates, then the glue and the wood start to break down. "

The product was installed primarily on single-family homes but also on apartments and condominiums, he said.

"What we've seen is that within, I'd say, five to seven years, that's when you really start to see the problems. And there's a warranty on the product, an express warranty," he said.

In both suits, class representatives sued for breach of express warranty and breach of the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.

A Louisiana-Pacific spokeswoman, Mary Cohn, declined to comment on either suit, citing pending litigation.

In their answers, however, the defendants asserted, among other things, that TrimBoard "was in compliance with the state of the art at the time. " They blamed improper installation by other parties and use of the product on "unsuitable structures and incorporation into structures with defects in other structural components. "

They also denied the plaintiffs' claims that the amounts in controversy would exceed $5 million in each suit.

Charleston case

The settlement, approved in January, came in Thomas et al. v. Louisiana-Pacific Corp. et al., case No. 2:05-1515-PMD.

Under that settlement, claimants in Charleston County can receive $17 per linear foot for partial replacement and $14 per linear foot for total replacement upon documentation of damage, according to Nexsen Pruet's letters. The court also authorized class counsel to take one-third of each class member's recovery as a fee.

The deadline to file claims is Feb. 27.

So far, about 100 claimants have come forward, Dominick said. No figures were available as to the total value of claims filed so far.

Dominick said his firm started sending the notification letters earlier this month.

"There had already been notices in the paper about the settlement that the court approved, and then there was a direct notice sent out earlier to people who had already made claims before because a lot of them had made partial claims and had not been paid fully," he said. "After that, there were additional letters sent to people who have been identified as having the product or who have called us about it. "

One challenge for class counsel has been identifying TrimBoard. Because the product has no identifying marks or stamps, the lawyers have been advising owners on characteristics that distinguish it from other manufactured trim.

"We've gotten a bunch of pieces in the mail. People cut off an end, like an inch wide, and send it to us, and we'll be able to identify it or we'll ask Louisiana-Pacific to identify it," Dominick said.

Some owners have been able to ID TrimBoard by obtaining construction invoices from builders, he said.

Ongoing litigation

The other class action is Brunson et al. v. Louisiana-Pacific Corp. et al., case No. 2:07-cv-03186-PMD.

Dominick declined to discuss details but said the Brunson plaintiffs are seeking mediation and a settlement. The defendants have filed motions for summary judgment.

The geographic scope of Brunson far exceeds that of Thomas, he said. Except for Charleston County, the class potentially includes all owners of buildings with TrimBoard in FEMA's Designated Hurricane-Susceptible Region, according to the complaint.

FEMA maps show the zone is east of a line that extends approximately parallel to the coast from the Cheraw area through northeast Columbia and the Aiken area.

The complaint said the members of the class might exceed 1,000. Dominick said the size of the class remains uncertain.

"The only thing we could do is [look at] the shipping records, which showed how much was actually shipped into the state and where it was shipped," he said.

"From the shipping records, most of it was sold down in the lower part of the state, which, because of the humidity down here, the wind-driven rain and the moisture, was probably the worst place to sell it," Dominick said.