$13-million settlement reached in RetroFoam class action lawsuit

Retrofoam insulation is seen in this undated image taken from video.

A class action lawsuit against the federal government and a Breslau-based distributor of a foam insulation product has been settled.

In a Windsor courtroom on Wednesday, Justice Terrence Patterson awarded $13 million in damages to the approximately 770 members of the suit.

With $3.9 million earmarked for the law firm that fought the case, that leaves each individual with a little less than $10,000.

“(The settlement) was hard work,” Patterson said in court.

“This was hard-fought, in an honourable way.”

RetroFoam of Canada, the Canadian distributor of the RetroFoam product, was sued in 2009, after Health Canada ordered them to stop selling the product.

Urea formaldehyde foam insulation products like RetroFoam have been banned from Canada since 1980, due to the risk they could release formaldehyde gas.

Nearly 900 homeowners in Ontario had nonetheless installed RetroFoam, because they were not aware the product was banned.

The lawsuit had been seeking $500 million in compensation.

With files from CTV Windsor