Costa v. Louisiana Pacific
The lawsuit claimed that the polyester strapping that is used to bundle LP’s oriented strand board (OSB) tongue-in-groove flooring product was negligently welded, which allowed over 30 sheets (weighing 75 pounds each) of the product to cascade down an incomplete elevator shaft like a “deck of cards,” injuring the workers who were working in the shaft. The plaintiffs sued the general contractor, the framing subcontractor, LP and LP’s retailer.
Christopher Parkerson tried the case with national counsel for Lousiana Pacific Charles Stuart from Bradley Arant in Montgomery, AL. In the fourth week of trial, the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiffs against the general contractor and the subcontractor in the amount of $3.2 million. However, LP and its retailer received defense verdicts on all claims against them, both product and negligence claims. During trial, LP also convinced the court to exclude a Tufts University chemist’s opinion that the welds on the straps were defective, and to prevent a mechanical engineer from testifying about his testing of exemplar straps.
Read a description if the case as written up in The Voice of the Defense Bar journal of the Defense Research Institute.
