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Attorneys representing people who say chemicals from Lumber Liquidators flooring made them ill claim a new settlement, valued at $36 million, excludes their clients.
In October, Lumber Liquidators agreed to pay $26 million in cash and provide $12 million of in-store credit to settle class-action lawsuits related to the flooring, according to the company.
A November court filing from the attorneys representing about 75 people says that “injured plaintiffs” were not included in the settlement and the attorneys should have been included in settlement discussions, The National Law Journal reports.
As a result, their case should continue to be considered in court, the attorneys say in the article.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had decided in June 2016 that the laminate flooring could potentially cause breathing problems and increase cancer risks for people.
Lumber Liquidators has been facing lawsuits regarding Chinese-made laminate flooring since 2015, when a “60 Minutes” episode on CNBC inspired a flurry of federal investigations into whether the flooring contained unsafe amounts of formaldehyde.
The company stopped selling the Chinese-made flooring, paid a $2.5 million fine and began providing air quality testing kits to consumers who were using the laminate in their homes. The company had sold the flooring to hundreds of thousands of people.
Lumber Liquidators continues to provide air quality test kits, when requested, according to the company’s 2017 third-quarter financial report.
