NEW ORLEANS — A federal jury on today began weighing allegations that a government-issued trailer exposed a Hurricane Katrina victim to dangerous fumes, claims similiar to those rejected by a different jury several months ago.
Eight jurors heard two weeks of testimony in a lawsuit brought by New Orleans resident Lyndon Wright against FEMA trailer manufacturer, Forest River Inc. of Goshen, Ind., and trailer installer, Shaw Environmental Inc. of Baton Rouge.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which provided tens of thousands of travel trailers to victims of the August 2005 storm, isn’t a defendant in the case. However, jurors can assign a percentage of fault to FEMA if they decide in Wright’s favor.
The case is the second of several “bellwether” trials designed to test the merits of and possibly resolve other claims over formaldehyde exposure in FEMA trailers.
In September, a jury rejected claims that a FEMA trailer made by Gulf Stream Coach Inc. was “unreasonably dangerous” in its construction.
Formaldehyde, a chemical commonly found in construction materials, can cause breathing problems and has been classified as a carcinogen. Government tests on hundreds of trailers in Louisiana and Mississippi found formaldehyde levels that were, on average, about five times what people are exposed to in most modern homes.
Wright, 39, lived in a FEMA trailer outside his mother’s storm-damaged home for 27 months. He claims elevated levels of formaldehyde in his trailer caused his breathing problems, left him coughing up blood and stoked his cancer fears.
Forest River attorney Ernie Gieger said Wright had a host of health problems before Katrina and didn’t spend much time in the trailer, since he worked long hours at two jobs after the storm.
“Whatever he suffers from today is not substantially associated with formaldehyde in that trailer,” Gieger said.
Wright’s lawyers asked jurors to award him $65,000 for future medical expenses, plus an unspecified amount of money for pain and suffering, mental anguish and emotional distress and “loss or impairment of life’s pleasures.”
Wright can’t recover any money from the federal government if the jury assigns any fault to FEMA.
Mississippi Business Journal
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