JAMES CITY —
A national consumer rights law firm has filed the fifth class action lawsuit against Lumber Liquidators over the safety of its Chinese-made laminate flooring.
Hagens Berman, which has nine offices nationwide, filed suit in San Francisco , alleging, among other items, that the home testing kits Lumber Liquidators offered customers who were worried about excess formaldehyde fumes from their flooring, were "bogus."
Our main focus is to represent plaintiffs/victims in securities and investment fraud, product liability, tort, antitrust, consumer fraud, employment, whistle blower, intellectual property, environmental, and employee pension protection cases," according the firm's website.
In a statement announcing its first quarter financial results Thursday, Lumber Liquidators reported that 10,000 customers had requested the test kits.
Hagens Berman's release accused Lumber Liquidators of conducting a "campaign of misinformation" and said the kits are not compliant with California Air Resources Board (CARB) standards.
According to the lawsuit, the free home-testing kits Lumber Liquidators has offered to customers are “inherently unreliable” and “designed to under-report” levels of formaldehyde in the composite flooring.
The suit also charges that the third party providing the home testing kits is not independent, but is being paid by Lumber Liquidators.
Lumber Liquidators responded Thursday afternoon.
"Lumber Liquidators is committed to providing our customers with safe, high-quality products. To reassure our customers, we have implemented an air quality testing program that includes testing by a third-party laboratory at no cost to the customer. We intend to defend ourselves vigorously against the claims asserted in this suit," the company said in a statement released in response to a request for comment on the new suit.
The suit, filed March 31, in the Northern District of California, represents consumers from California, Florida and Michigan.
In its financial announcement, Lumber Liquidators reported first quarter financial results which were decent, despite the ongoing controversy over the safety of its flooring, put in the spotlight by a story on CBS's "60 Minutes" 'last month.
Net sales in the first quarter of 2015 were $260.0 million, the company reported, an increase of 5.6% from the first quarter of 2014.
However, the "60 Minutes" piece had an impact, net sales in the month of March were $89.4 million, a decrease of 12.8% in comparison to March 2014.
"Consistent with company's expectations as discussed in its March 12, 2015 business update, net sales in March 2015 were significantly weaker than trends in January and February, as net sales were negatively impacted by unfavorable allegations surrounding the product quality of the company's laminates sourced from China," the statement said.
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