Grenfell families file US lawsuit over cladding and insulation

The families of 69 victims and 177 survivors of the Grenfell Tower disaster have launched legal action in the US against the manufacturers of the cladding and insulation used in the building’s refurbishment, which lawyers said could result in a payout worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Arconic, which manufactured the aluminium composite cladding, Celotex, which made the insulation, and Celotex’s parent, Saint-Gobain, are being sued for punitive and compensatory damages relating to wrongful death.

Lawyers described it as one of the largest ever product liability cases and said if the claim was successful the damages could eclipse the largest wrongful death payout awarded in Pennsylvania, which was $227m after seven deaths in a building collapse in 2013.

Days before the two-year statute of limitations was due to run out, the case has been lodged in court in Philadelphia where both companies have bases. If liability is established, any damages would be set by a jury.

The Grenfell lawyers said on Tuesday they would argue that Arconic sold the cladding material “knowing it was flammable, it could spread fire and it could and would kill.”

They said the cladding was withdrawn from sale in the UK after the disaster on 14 June 2017. Stopping its sale earlier was “a decision that could have and should have been made and if it had 72 people would be alive today,” they said.

The lawyers said the cladding and insulation firms “sold and supplied dangerous, defective, deadly and flammable products that they have both now withdrawn from the market”. Whirlpool, which manufactured the Hotpoint-brand fridge-freezer where the fire is believed to have started, is also being sued in the claim.

Among the plaintiffs are the Choucair family, who lost six of their loved ones, El-Wahabi family who lost five, and the Hashim family, who lost four people including six-year-old Yacub, one of 18 children to die in the fire. The first plaintiff is the estate of Gloria Trevisan, an Italian architect who lived on the 23rd floor with her boyfriend Marco Gottardi. Both died in the blaze.

Nicholas Burton, whose wife, Maria del Pilar Burton, died in January 2018 as a result of injuries sustained in the fire, said: “The American companies knew of the dangers with their products yet elected to supply them anyway and expose us and our loved ones to this fire. This lawsuit is about holding them accountable.”

Marcio Gomes, whose wife, Andreia Perestrelo, gave birth to a stillborn son after being placed in an induced coma after the fire, said: “It was all completely avoidable. It should never have happened. It should never happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Corporations must be held to account for each and every person who died or was injured.”

The move opens a third front in the Grenfell community’s search for justice and will run concurrent with the much-delayed public inquiry, which will start examining the £10m refurbishment of the tower from the beginning of next year. A separate Metropolitan police investigation has identified potential suspects for offences of corporate manslaughter and gross negligence manslaughter.

The lawyers said any trial in the US was not likely to start until the end of 2021. The reason the action was being brought in the US was that “although the devastation may have occurred abroad, the decisions that led to it took place here in America,” claimed Jeffrey Goodman, of the Philadelphia law firm Saltz Mongeluzzi Barrett & Bendesky.

The legal strategy is not unique. Lawyers acting on behalf of the families of non-US victims of disasters such as the Indonesian Lion Air crash last October and the Ethiopian Air crash in March, both of which involved Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, are also bringing suits in US courts.

Saint-Gobain said: “We were surprised to see litigation filed in the United States in relation to issues which have every link with the United Kingdom and no link with the United States … [The insulation in question] was not manufactured or sold in the United States.”

Celotex, which is owned by St Gobain, said it was a UK business and “the Celotex insulation used at Grenfell Tower was manufactured and sold in the United Kingdom”.

A spokesman for Arconic said it had “no comment on any potential litigation”, adding: “We continue to support the public inquiry and the investigations by the authorities.”