Judge Allows Grout Cleaner Liability Suits

Atlanta, GA, June 25, 2009--A federal judge in Atlanta is permitting dozens of product liability suits against Home Depot and the makers of a tile grout cleaner to proceed to trial on negligence claims, but he has stripped away other claims that sought damages for violating federal consumer product safety laws.

Ten of those suits, filed by an Atlanta attorney on behalf of Home Depot customers who were hospitalized after using Tile Perfect Stand 'N Seal Spray-On Grout Cleaner, are among approximately 50 suits that have settled, according to a Home Depot attorney.

The settlements are confidential, said Frank A. Ilardi of Houck, Ilardi & Regas, who shared lead counsel duties.

The manufacturer of the grout sealer had been fielding complaints for more than a month about the potentially devastating health problems associated with its use when Flynn bought a spray can from his neighborhood Home Depot in July 2005.

Two people died and dozens were hospitalized after breathing vapors from the aerosol chemical spray, according to plaintiffs' court pleadings in the case. As a result of those injuries, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a recall of 300,000 cans of the product.

A Gwinnett County resident was hospitalized and left with permanent lung damage after inhaling Stand N' Seal's fumes, which, according to the plaintiffs, contained Flexipel, a chemical that should not have been produced in aerosol form, according to a material data safety sheet included in the court files that was made available by its supplier.

The plaintiffs originally had accused Home Depot and one of its co-defendants -- distributor Roanoke Cos. Group, doing business as Tile Perfect -- of delaying notification to the product safety commission of the growing health complaints associated with Stand 'N Seal's use, in violation of federal product safety regulations, and then withholding critical information that delayed a mandatory recall.

Home Depot and its co-defendants are fighting the claims vigorously, arguing over who may bear the responsibility for any damages and suggesting that any alleged harm to customers was caused by the product's misuse.

Home Depot continued to sell Stand 'N Seal until March 2007.