Jury awards $475,000 in class action plumbing lawsuit

By Jeff Pope

Monday, June 15, 2009 | 3:24 p.m.

A jury has awarded $475,000 to homeowners in the the Dove Canyon neighborhood in North Las Vegas as part of a valley-wide plumbing defect class action lawsuit. The jurors rendered their decision at about 8 p.m. Friday in Clark County District Court after a seven-day trial.

The award benefits the owners of 40 homes plumbed by Majestic Plumbing Inc.

Majestic, one of about a dozen plumbers named in this class action lawsuit, is the first defendant in this lawsuit to take the case to trial and not seek a settlement. It was named along with Kitec-maker IPEX and about 40 builders that installed the system in approximately 32,000 homes in Southern Nevada. Most of the builders and plumbers have reached settlements and so far have avoided going to trial.

Majestic could appeal the jury’s verdict. The company’s attorney wasn't available for comment.

Developers of Nevada, the company that built Dove Canyon, already has reached a preliminary settlement of $1.2 million for 283 homes throughout the valley. IPEX paid $90 million to resolve all its claims in Nevada, though that settlement was appealed to the state Supreme Court and a decision is pending.

The other settlements were based on the number of homes each plumber and builder were responsible for and on the number of fixtures in each home.

The jury’s award was $50,000 more than the plaintiffs were seeking, said Bill Coulthard, of the firm Kemp, Jones and Coulthard, which represents thousands of homeowners whose homes contain the Kitec system.

“The jury was concerned about making the homeowners whole and and giving the homeowners enough money to replumb their homes,” he said after the decision was reached.

The suit alleges the Kitec fittings fail through a process called dezincification in which water removes zinc from brass plumbing fittings and turns it into silt, which collects in the pipes. Over time, the accumulation causes blockages and can cause the water lines to rupture.

Sharp Plumbing was supposed to be a co-defendant in the trial but the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 22 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Las Vegas.

Sharp, based in North Las Vegas, plumbed an estimated 16,000 homes with Kitec, according to court documents. Months before entering into Chapter 11, the plumbing company had reached a preliminary settlement of $6.9 million for all but 9,940 homes.

Coulthard’s firm asked the bankruptcy court to lift the stay against Sharp to seek an additional $5.9 million for the remaining homes. But as long as the company remains in Chapter 11, the class action lawsuit proceedings are frozen, he said.

“Even though we made a lot of significant settlements that’s still a big potential source of funds that homeowners need to repair these homes,” Coulthard said.

Sharp was one of the companies that appealed the IPEX settlement to the state Supreme Court. Most of the petitioners dismissed their appeal as part of their settlement, Coulthard said. Sharp has not.

Several builders named in the class action suit also have filed for bankruptcy protection. Coulthard said his firm is pursuing the companies’ insurance carriers to settle the claims.

The firm of Lynch, Hopper & Salzano also represents the homeowners.