At least two lawyers have asked for the recent Lumber Liquidators class-action lawsuit settlement to be rejected by the court after they said their clients were left out of the deal, according to Law.com.
The lawyers, Shawn Reed and Kevin Sullivan, represent individual plaintiffs who allegedly became ill from formaldehyde off-gassing in Lumber Liquidators Chinese-made laminate flooring, which caused an uproar two years ago when a “60 Minutes” investigation claimed the product emitted unsafe levels of formaldehyde. The company stopped selling the product in May 2015.
Reed and Sullivan have asked U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga of the Eastern District of Virginia for a hearing and to reject the settlement announced in October that awarded $22 million in cash and $14 million in store credit to the plaintiffs.
“Unfortunately, lead plaintiffs’ counsel decided to freeze these lawyers out of the settlement process,” Reed and Sullivan wrote in a court filing, according to Law.com. “Because these plaintiffs’ claims have been negotiated by lawyers admittedly not representing their interests, these plaintiffs have been denied due process. Any purported settlement is a nullity as a result, and this case must proceed.”
Lumber Liquidators “disputed many of the facts” of the lawyers’ filing, Law.com said. The company has offered to continue mediation with Reed and Sullivan, but they have yet to respond, the company told Law.com.
The lawyers who Reed and Sullivan claim froze them out told Law.com they did not want Reed and Sullivan included.
“They wanted to be included in our mediation and we didn’t want them there,” Steve Toll, one of the three lawyers who led the class-action lawsuit, told Law.com. “None of us wanted them there.”
A response from Toll and the other lead attorneys is expected to be filed this week with the court.
