Woman claims defective Chinese drywall killed husband
NBC Miami
By Willard Shepard
A South Florida woman says her husband paid the ultimate price for having defective Chinese dry wall in their home.
"He was perfect, lungs, everything. No illness at all and in October of
that year he was diagnosed with stage four cancer," Adriana Grillet
said of her husband, Juan Merino.
The family lived in a high rise building off Biscayne Boulevard in
Aventura for about a year. Just nine months after he was diagnosed,
Merino was dead.
On Wednesday, Grillet was in court forging ahead with her claim that
even though her husband asked, they were told there wasn't Chinese dry
wall in the unit they were going to rent. She says that turned out to
be untrue and it cost him his life.
"He was my best friend. He was my love," Grillet said.
She's now suing those operating the building and a company that did
testing for Chinese dry wall. All of them deny her allegations that
they had anything to do with Merino's death.
The attorney for the property management group, Esq. Momentis Property
Group, indicated there's no evidence to show any toxins were in the
unit when the couple was there that could have caused Merino's fatal
lung cancer.
"We sympathize that Mr. Merino passed away from cancer. But the point
is what was the cause of it and we have to look at that from a
scientific standpoint," attorney Jeff Paskert said in court. "What they
are not going to be able to show you is that a carcinogen, sulfuric
acid mist, was present in any dose that exposed anybody in that
condominium unit."
But Grillet says her husband, who had asthma, specifically asked before moving in if Chinese dry wall was present.
"He wouldn't sign any paper, any lease, if he doesn't have a serious study that was no Chinese dry wall," Grillet said.
Her attorney produced a lease which reads, in part: "the landlord had
an inspection done...conditions in the unit from the wall board do not
appear to present a health risk."
"He was given a report that says 'we can't detect any of these gases in
your apartment and we believe living in the apartment poses no health
risks' when in fact the first draft of the thing said we should warn
people that they could get sick," attorney Richard Burton said.
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After moving, she says other experts tested again.
"The study says that the apartment had 99 percent Chinese dry wall," Grillet said.
That's why the woman is claiming the building and the testing company
are responsible for what happened. The attorney for the property group
also said that this all happened in such a short time window that
Merino could have had the lung cancer before ever moving in.
The case still has a way to go in court but its the first case with
Chinese Dry wall that doesn't address fixing up a property but someone
dying over what happening with the defective dry wall.
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