District Judge William Skretny
Louisiana-Pacific’s (L-P) TrimBoard composite wood product was installed on Bristol Village’s facility in 2003. Marketed as a low-cost wood trim alternative “actually superior to real wood” L-P warranted TrimBoard against delamination, chipping and cracking for 10 years under normal use and exposure conditions. TrimBoard also came with a five-year warranty on its primer against peeling, blistering and cracking. Asserting that the TrimBoard on its facility was rotting, swelling, cracking and peeling,” Bristol’s putative class suit asserted claims including breaches of express warranty and the implied warranty of merchantability, unjust enrichment and violation of New York’s Deceptive Trade Practices Law. The court only partly dismissed Bristol’s amended complaint. Discussing Weiss v. Polymer Plastics and Hemming v. Certainteed, it noted that in cases involving the failure of exterior building products to perform properly, the economic loss rule bars recovery for both the direct loss of the product itself and consequential damages to the underlying structure. Also, relationship between Bristolwhich did not directly buy TrimBoard from L-Pand L-P to be too attenuated to sustain Bristol’s unjust enrichment claim.
