Demilec Must Face Spray Foam Insulation Class Action Lawsuit

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A New Jersey couple can continue their class action lawsuit alleging that a manufacturer markets and sells unnecessarily dangerous spray foam insulation products through distributors and installers after a U.S. District judge denied material manufacturer’s Demilec’s motion to dismiss.

When a class action lawsuit includes allegations of a design defect, the normal standard of pleading is that plaintiffs must demonstrate that safer alternatives are either available or could be produced instead. However, because David and Lauren Schraeder live in New Jersey, the statute at issue is the New Jersey Products Liability Act, where according to law and precedent, another standard is possible.

Judge Faith S. Hochberg noted in her decision that in addition to the alternatives standard, the Schraeders could sue Demilec over its spray foam insulation products on a count of a design defect because the law states that plaintiffs “must prove … that the product’s risks outweighed its utility” but to do so must demonstrate that a product like the spray foam insulation is “so dangerous and of such little use that under the risk-utility analysis [the] manufacturer [should] bear the cost of liability of harm to others.

With motions to dismiss, the only way Judge Hochberg can read the complaint prior to trial is to accept any allegations as reasonable, provided they have support within the class action lawsuit. In the case of the Schraeder’s case, filed in 2012, she decided that there was.

In that original complaint, the couple alleged that Demilec’s spray foam insulation consisted of numerous harmful chemicals that combine to create a “chemical reaction of two sets of highly toxic compounds.” While the result is supposed to not be harmful, the company allegedly warned installers that they must account for weather and equipment or the “installation [can] fail and create a noxious substance.”

The resulting “off-gassing” causes headaches and neurological problems and includes known carcinogens and chemicals that the Occupational Health and Safety Administration considers “hazardous” for people, according to the Demilec insulation class action lawsuit.

David and Lauren Schraeder are represented by David T. Sirotkin of Morelli Alters Ratner PC.

The Demilec Spray Foam Insulation Class Action Lawsuit is David Schraeder, et al. v. Demilec LLC, et al., Case No. 12-cv-06074, U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey.