Class Certified in Home Depot Defective Railing Class Action Lawsuit

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On Monday, plaintiffs were successful in their bid to certify their proposed Class in the class action lawsuit against Home Depot USA Inc. that accuses the company of selling defective outdoor railings. The class action lawsuit also names Barrette Outdoor Living Inc., the manufacturer of the allegedly defective railings, as a defendant.

U.S. District Court Judge Daniel D. Crabtree ruled in favor of the lead plaintiff, rejecting Home Depot’s argument that the Class should not be certified because Home Depot did not keep records of rail purchasers making class recovery difficult or impossible.

“In a consumer class action where the potential recovery for each class member is relatively small, a class action is the only realistic option for recovery,” Judge Crabtree wrote in his order. “Because sellers of the products like the brackets here are unlikely to keep perfect records of every individual who purchased the product in question, alternative methods to identify class members must be permitted,” he continued. “Essentially, then, defendants argue that a retailer who sells defective products could immunize itself from class certification by merely choosing not to keep records of the people who bought the defective product.”

Judge Crabtree agreed to certify the plaintiffs proposed Class including all people or other entities who purchased Barrette guardrail products with the plastic brackets from Home Depot in Kansas from June 2008 to the present. Judge Crabtree’s order did not, however, include a decision regarding Home Depot’s and Barrette’s pending motions for summary judgment and bifurcated the damages issue to be resolved at a later date.

Frederick Aloysius Nieberding and his son initially lodged the class action lawsuit against Home Depot in Kansas federal court after his son fell two stories and was injured while using the allegedly defective rails in June of 2011. The plaintiffs alleged that the brackets on the rails, prefabricated vinyl guardrails, manufactured by Barrett Outdoor Living and sold by the Home Depot, were defective because they were brittle, did not have adequate screws, and were not shaped to withstand force.

According to the Home Depot class action lawsuit, the railing is sold in sections of varying lengths and consists of a series of vertical balusters or bars held in place by horizontal rails at the top and bottom. Each railing product typically includes small brackets made out of PVC that are used to connect the horizontal rails at the top and bottom of the product to the structure on which the railing is installed. For the railing products at issue here, the top bracket is shaped like a bread loaf and the bottom bracket is shaped like a rectangle. The plaintiffs also claim Home Depot and Barrette harmed a Class of purchasers by causing them to pay more for the rails than they were worth.

Plaintiffs are represented by John M. Klamann and Andrew J. Schermerhorn of The Klamann Law Firm, by Ronald P. Pope of Ralston Pope & Diehl LLC and by Mark P. Schloegel and William Dirk Vandever of The Popham Law Firm.

The Home Depot Defective Railing Class Action Lawsuit is Nieberding v. Barrette Outdoor Living Inc., et al., Case No. 2:12-cv-02353, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas.

UPDATE: On April 14, 2015, a federal judge preliminarily approved the Home Depot defective railing class action lawsuit.