Posted on 11/16/2016 8:22:51 PM PST by nickcarraway
A South Florida woman says her husband paid the ultimate price for having defective Chinese dry wall in their home.
"He was perfect, lungs, everything. No illness at all and in October of that year he was diagnosed with stage four cancer," Adriana Grillet said of her husband, Juan Merino.
The family lived in a high rise building off Biscayne Boulevard in Aventura for about a year. Just nine months after he was diagnosed, Merino was dead. On Wednesday, Grillet was in court forging ahead with her claim that even though her husband asked, they were told there wasn't Chinese dry wall in the unit they were going to rent. She says that turned out to be untrue and it cost him his life.
"He was my best friend. He was my love," Grillet said.
She's now suing those operating the building and a company that did testing for Chinese dry wall. All of them deny her allegations that they had anything to do with Merino's death.
The attorney for the property management group, Esq. Momentis Property Group, indicated there's no evidence to show any toxins were in the unit when the couple was there that could have caused Merino's fatal lung cancer.
"We sympathize that Mr. Merino passed away from cancer. But the point is what was the cause of it and we have to look at that from a scientific standpoint," attorney Jeff Paskert said in court. "What they are not going to be able to show you is that a carcinogen, sulfuric acid mist, was present in any dose that exposed anybody in that condominium unit."
But Grillet says her husband, who had asthma, specifically asked before moving in if Chinese dry wall was present.
"He wouldn't sign any paper, any lease, if he doesn't have a serious study that was no Chinese dry wall," Grillet said.
Her attorney produced a lease which reads, in part: "the landlord had an inspection done...conditions in the unit from the wall board do not appear to present a health risk." "He was given a report that says 'we can't detect any of these gases in your apartment and we believe living in the apartment poses no health risks' when in fact the first draft of the thing said we should warn people that they could get sick," attorney Richard Burton said.
After moving, she says other experts tested again.
"The study says that the apartment had 99 percent Chinese dry wall," Grillet said. That's why the woman is claiming the building and the testing company are responsible for what happened. The attorney for the property group also said that this all happened in such a short time window that Merino could have had the lung cancer before ever moving in.
The case still has a way to go in court but its the first case with Chinese Dry wall that doesn't address fixing up a property but someone dying over what happening with the defective dry wall.
Chinese drywall was the bane of Floridians after the hurricanes of the 2004-2005 seasons.
Sounds like she may have a case. At very least, she should get a settlement out of it. Terrible her husband’s lung sensitivity was apparently not taken seriously.
These developers have no clue whether or not there is Chinese drywall in their buildings
“Sounds like she may have a case. “
http://www.law360.com/articles/460856/fla-woman-sues-over-chinese-drywall-in-condo
I think they have a case but I don’t see him getting cancer from CDW in the one year time frame.
Folks, this is a real thing. The plumbing and wiring in hundreds of thousands of new homes have been corroded into scrap metal due to Chinese drywall made from gypsum that contained large amounts of sulfur.
I can totally believe someones lungs could be wrecked by chemicals powerful enough to wreck wiring and plumbing.
What’d you do sniff it growing up?
That’s truly horrifying. Was it uniformly used across the country or are certain areas more at risk?
I hate to keep saying Trump will take care of this like he’s a superhero, but he will!!
“are certain areas more at risk?”
Mostly the Gulf states...during the rebuild after the hurricanes
The whole Chinese drywall scandal is awful in multiple ways.
But I would like to see some serious science that indicates the toxins in the drywall could cause stage 4 lung cancer in that short of a time period.
I know the drywall is/was bad, but I’ve never heard of anything causing advanced cancer that quickly.
But that part aside, if the developer lied about the drywall, as he appeared to do, then he still needs to be sued.
Oh brother.
Sicilian drywall
gypsum is =
HYDRATED CALCIUM SULFATE
IF IT DID NOT HAVE SULFUR IT WOULD NOT BE GYPSUM!
The other half of this is that during that time the Gulf states were flooded with illegals running fly by night companies...almost all of them were roofing and drywall. They are LONG gone!!!
Let me guess. The government gave them the contracts?
or was it individuals?
Bump
The general contractors working for the developers were hiring the illegal drywall and roofing companies because they were cutting everyone else’s pricing...mostly because they were not carrying workers comp and other business insurance.
Like I said..this is another downside to illegal immigration.
The developers and the GC’s made a killing.
Geez...as if it needed another downside. Disgusting.
We are ALL capitalists here. Being a Capitalist DOES NOT mean having no scruples.
When I had my vending machine route, I threw away candy on the day it expired.
I know other animals that used candy many months after.
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