Chinese drywall company comes forward

HAMPTON ROADS, Va. (WAVY) - Bill Morgan walked around a large beautiful home on Ashington Way in Williamsburg. He stopped. The husband and father looked at his family members' names etched into the cement near the garage door. He started to weep.

The home used to belong to his family. He and his wife bought it new in 2006. Last June they moved out because of defective Chinese drywall.

Friday, there was a small ray of hope. "It's just nice to see some forward movement from China," Morgan said.

For the first time in 16 months, Morgan's attorneys heard from the company that made the defective Chinese Drywall.

"You know we had to file bankruptcy as part of this process, this home went into foreclosure, I don't KNOW who owns it now. It used to be mine," Morgan said.

Last month a federal judge awarded Morgan and six other Hampton Roads homeowners $2.6 million in damages. 10 On Your Side's continuing investigations into the Chinese drywall have revealed complaints of a strong rotten egg smell and corroded metals in affected homes. Residents speak of unexplained health problems. People from several areas including Williamsburg, Newport News, Chesapeake, Norfolk, and Virginia Beach have joined lawsuits against the manufacturer.

Taishan Gypsum Co., Ltd is the Chinese government-owned manufacturer. No one from the company had answered concerns about the product. Taishan never even acknowledged the lengthy trial that led to the judgments, until now. Taishan attorneys filed a "Notice to Appeal" the ruling for the seven homeowners.

Their attorney Richard Serpe told WAVY.com, "I think the Chinese showing up today is a reflection of them understanding that we're not going to go away... But now they're clearly worried about the judgment for the 7 families being turned into a class wide judgment for all of the Virginia victims."

According to Serpe, the document filed in a federal appellate court seeks to dismiss all findings, and start over. He said, "Taishan is not going to be able to take an eraser and pretend that none of this happened then start over again. I think this is a recognition that Taishan understands this case is going to proceed to collections against them... When they decided not to show up, they waived a lot of their rights. They waived their right to trial by jury. They waived their right to challenge the evidence that was introduced."

The effort to get compensation for every affected Virginia homeowner started about two weeks ago. Serpe and the rest of the plaintiffs' legal team requested the case be certified for as a "class" that would include as many as 400 homeowners. Each could stand to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars for the impact of defective drywall.

Morgan said, "It's been hard for all the families affected by it. Financially it's really been hard. And to see them respond in some way is encouraging to us."

A call to attorneys representing Taishan in New Orleans was not immediately returned.