New York, NY: US District Court Judge Benita Y. Pearson, in a Final Order, has approved the settlement for the defective products class action lawsuit against Gentek Building Products (Eliason, et al. v. Gentek Building Products, Inc., et al., Case No.: 1:10-cv-02093-BYP). Approval of the settlement was filed on Aug. 1, 2013, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division.
According to the Complaint, the siding manufactured and sold by Gentek is defectively designed and manufactured in such a way that it will prematurely fail, causing damage to consumer homes.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a number of Plaintiffs who alleged that the exterior siding manufactured by Gentek is defective and fails within the warranty period. The manufacturer' warranty is supposed to cover cracking, chipping, flaking, peeling or splitting for the life of the purchaser. The warranty is in effect for 50 years from the original installation in the case that the property is sold to a new owner.
According to the lawsuit, the siding peels, cracks and chips are within the warranty period. Furthermore, the suit alleged that Gentek failed to honor its warranty. The Plaintiffs claim that instead of repairing, replacing or refinishing the siding as promised, the Defendants only offer a small amount of money as compensation or offer to repaint the affected area only. The suit claimed that the sum of money offered was inadequate to reverse the damage, and that repainting only the affected area would only lead to future repairs because it did not address the underlying problem.
According to the Judge' Order, for settlement purposes, the class in this litigation was certified to be all persons, organizations, municipalities, corporations and entities that own property, whether commercial or residential, on which Gentek Steel Siding was applied during the period January 1, 1991 through March 15, 2013, that are covered by a Gentek Steel Siding warranty and which siding experienced Steel Peel.
