Judge’s Ruling Means Class-Action Suit Is On
Producer Michael Rey
CBS News Investigates
October 6, 2008
A federal judge has ruled that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) can be taken to court for the way it handled the problem with toxic formaldehyde fumes in the trailers it provided residents of the Gulf Coast after hurricanes Rita and Katrina.
In a 48-page ruling, Judge Kurt Engelhardt of the Eastern District, Louisiana ruled late Friday that the Agency cannot be held liable for using the trailers as emergency housing after the storms. But the agency can be held to account for ignoring the formaldehyde problem and not properly informing the public of the dangers.
A class-action suit was filed against the manufacturers of travel trailers and FEMA by more than 800 residents who complained of exposure to toxic formaldehyde fumes emitted from the materials used in the trailers. Nearly 150,000 trailers were used to house people displaced by the storms.
FEMA had filed a motion to be dismissed from the suit on the grounds that the agency should not he held liable for following policy directives by deploying the trailers in its response to a national emergency.
In a move he colorfully describes as “sticking their heads in the sand,” Engelhardt cited an internal email released in July 2007, “Indeed, the evidence shows that FEMA initially ignored the potential formaldehyde problem and neglected to conduct testing in fear that such testing would, ‘imply FEMA’s ownership of the issue.’”
“This ruling limits the questions to how (FEMA) responded rather than the provision of the trailers,” said Tony Buzbee, lead attorney in the case representing more than 800 former trailer residents against FEMA and the manufacturers.
Buzbee told CBS News that the case is, “very much alive” but the plaintiffs will now have to focus their case against FEMA on what they did about the formaldehyde problem after March 2006 when internal documents showed agency lawyers were concerned more about lawsuits than the health of trailer residents.
By Michael Rey
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