Lumber Liquidators Class Action Lawsuits Mounting After Recent Report Contends The Company’s Laminate Flooring Made In China Violates Formaldehyde Emissions Standards.

As lawsuit filings against Lumber Liquidators continue over the formaldehyde emission levels in its laminated flooring products manufactured in China, Wright & Schulte LLC has learned that the company has stopped selling the controversial flooring products. The law firm, who is currently representing clients in product liability lawsuits, discovered that Lumber Liquidators is pulling the product off its shelves due to customers’ concerns over the emission levels of formaldehyde, a cancer-causing chemical. In reviewing a CBS News report, Wright & Schulte LLC notes that Lumber Liquidators initially denied the claims made in March by 60 Minutes that testing conducted on samples of the company’s composite wood products showed the formaldehyde levels were beyond California’s safety standards. CBS News reported that Lumber Liquidators offered free air-quality testing kits to customers concerned about formaldehyde emissions and also offered to replace the laminate flooring, if necessary.
[cbsnews.com/news/lumber-liquidators-pulls-chinese-made-laminate-flooring/, May 7, 2015]

According to Wright & Schulte LLC, 60 Minutes went to Lumber Liquidators stores in five states and bought 31 boxes of flooring that was made in China. The 60 Minutes investigators had the floor samples tested and the results showed only one contained safe levels of formaldehyde, the law firm explains. The 60 Minutes segment also featured a discussion on a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of Global Community Monitor and Sunshine Park LLC, two California-based organizations that conducted 50 separate tests on the products using a variety of different methodologies, and different samples of the products. According to the class-action complaint, testing showed average initial formaldehyde exposures were over 100 times above the amount allowed to be sold without a warning label under California state law. “Without exception, the Lumber Liquidators products produced in China that Plaintiffs tested emitted formaldehyde at far higher rates than those manufactured in Europe or North America – on average, Chinese products emitted at 350 percent the rate of European/North American products,” the complaint states. (Superior Court of Alameda County California, Case No. RG14733979)

Court documents indicate that after the 60 Minutes report was aired, class-action lawsuits were filed on behalf of customers who allege that Lumber Liquidators’ sold laminate flooring made in China that contained unsafe levels of formaldehyde. As stated in the court documents, formaldehyde is a gas that is linked to increased risk of cancer of the nose, sinuses, lung cancer and nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal cancer. The complaints assert that exposure to formaldehyde causes burning eyes, nose and throat irritation, coughing, headaches, nausea, dizziness, and joint pain. The laminate flooring lawsuits contend that Lumber Liquidators’ website says that all of its flooring comes from mills that are certified as complaint with California’s formaldehyde standards, yet testing results of the products showed average initial formaldehyde exposures over 100 times above the amount allowed to be sold without a warning label under state law.

According to court records, a motion was filed in March asking the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) to consolidate all federally filed class-action lawsuits against Lumber Liquidators over its Chinese-made laminate flooring products. The plaintiffs filing the motion asked the JMPL to centralize the cases in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California because the majority of Lumber Liquidator class-action complaints are pending in that court. (In re: Lumber Liquidators Flooring Products Marketing and Sales Practices Litigation, MDL No. 2627) Court filings additionally show that Lumber Liquidators faces a class-action lawsuit over the free, in-home air quality testing kit that tests the formaldehyde levels in its composite flooring products. According to the class-action complaint, Lumber Liquidators offered the testing kits to consumers who were concerned over the formaldehyde emission levels in their homes. The class-action lawsuit alleges that the company’s air quality testing kits are “inherently unreliable because they are designed to “under-report” the formaldehyde levels. The complaint further alleges that the testing kits do not comply with California Air Resources Board (CARB) standards. (Case No. 5:15-cv-01475, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California)

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