Nearly two dozen companies that manufactured government-issued trailers for storm victims after Hurricane Katrina have agreed to pay almost $15 million in a class-action settlement of claims that the temporary shelters exposed occupants to hazardous fumes. The proposed settlement could benefit tens of thousands of Gulf Coast residents who lived in travel trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency after hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

Twenty-one trailer makers or their insurers will pay a total of $14.8 million to resolve the claims without any admission of wrongdoing. U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt had been asked to preliminarily approve the deal, which would be the largest mass settlement of claims over formaldehyde levels in FEMA trailers. Gerald Meunier, a lawyer who is with the New Orleans firm Gainsburgh, Benjamin, David, Meunier & Warshauer, represents the Plaintiff in the lawsuit giving rise to this settlement.

Source: Claims Journal