For homeowners with leaky or bursting plastic plumbing, relief may be less imminent -- and less extensive -- than some attorneys had hoped.
A Houston judge last week threw out a $750 million class-action settlement between homeowners and three chemical companies over faulty, polybutylene pipes and fittings.
The settlement -- agreed to last fall by Hoechst Celanese Corp., Shell Oil Co. and Du Pont Co.-- would have paid to replace plumbing and repair water damage in homes across the country, an attorney for the homeowners said.
The Trial Lawyers for Public Justice of Washington, D.C., which filed the suit on behalf of homeowners in 1993, will either appeal Judge Katie Kennedy's decision or proceed to trial, said attorney Skip Warren.
In the meantime, outside of an individual lawsuit, homeowners can file a claim with the Plumbing Claims Group Inc., set up in 1991 by the three manufacturers, which promises at least a partial remedy.
The group says a homeowner with an indoor leak should have it repaired and save receipts and plumbing components. After filing a claim, the homeowner will be visited by a plumbing inspector, who will decide whether to repair or completely replace piping, both of which the group covers.
With exterior leaks, the group typically pays for a local contractor to replace the line. The group repairs some property damage suffered after an initial leak, but waits until after a second leak to replace the plumbing, said Carrie Chassin, a spokeswoman for the group.
But homeowners would likely have had more covered under the proposed settlement.
Under that agreement, the chemical companies agreed to pay $750 million initially for plumbing replacements, past property damage and out-of-pocket expenses, for anyone claiming damage. The agreement covered damaged polybutylene plumbing in homes built after Jan. 1, 1978, as well as future damage over the next 16 years.
"No one knows how many people have polybutylene plumbing," Mr. Warren said. "There are probably millions of people out there with polybutylene, but not all have leaked and not everybody is interested in the trouble" of filing a lawsuit.
"They were going to get a remedy," he said. "They don't have a remedy now."
Exterior and interior polybutylene plastic pipes and connections known as fittings have been installed in millions of new homes in Maryland and most states since the late 1970s, Mr. Warren said.
The plumbing -- blue pipes in yards between the curbside meter and the house and gray pipes inside homes connected by gray fittings -- was later found, in some cases, to react to chemicals in drinking water.
Exterior pipes have burst and flooded yards, for instance, at most of the 330 townhouses in Wellington Valley in Lutherville, said Lenny Scheuermann, president of the homeowners association. Since 1991, residents have filed with the industry claims group, which has replaced the lines with copper pipes. Before that, the builder had been replacing damaged lines, he said. No one has had problems since, he said.
The group has handled 100,000 claims, with about 500 per month from Maryland residents since January 1994, Ms. Chassin said. Before plumbing is replaced, homeowners must sign a release barring them from participating in class-action or other lawsuits, she said.
Attorneys warned that signing such a release could shortchange consumers.
Mr. Warren charged that manufacturers set up the group "in an attempt to keep people from suing, they would offer a little bit of money. If they sign a release, it's likely they will not be able to participate in a class-action lawsuit."
Homeowners who settle with the company for replacement of exterior pipes may not realize they also have interior polybutylene systems, warned Phillip L. Feliciano, an attorney who has represented 5,000 Maryland plaintiffs in polybutylene plumbing cases over the past five years.
The material became available in Montgomery and Prince George's counties in 1980 for exterior lines and in 1983 for interior lines. It has not been allowed in those counties since last June, nor on exterior lines in Anne Arundel County since last March, Mr. Feliciano said.
"It's safe to say that during the 1980s, it was available and widely used in the state" -- promoted as noncorrosive and cheaper, more flexible and more durable than copper pipes, he said. In most of his cases, plumbing failed after six to 10 years, rather than lasting the 25 to 50 years promised. With interior pipes, replacement costs can run from $7,000 to $25,000, he said.
The original polybutylene fittings are no longer used, but a new version of the plastic pipes are still made, Mr. Warren said.
The new plastic pipes have not caused problems, said Roland H. Mann Jr., general manager of Plumbing, Heating & Supplies Inc. in Westminster. Interior systems have malfunctioned because of the fittings, not because of the pipes, which are still widely used in the Baltimore region, he said.
But Mr. Mann said problems have arisen with underground pipes in exterior lines, which sometimes break or leak when the ground settles.
The judge in the class-action case offered no explanation for her ruling. Attorneys suggested that she questioned either the terms of the settlement or her jurisdiction in the national suit.
MORE INFORMATION
To learn more about the Plumbing Claims Group -- created by pipe manufacturers -- and what it will do about faulty plumbing, call:
(800) 356-3496
or write:
500 N. Central Expressway, Suite 125, Plano, Texas 75094.