The shoe has dropped for one builder who has been working hard to avoid entanglement in the Chinese Drywall defective drywall class actions.    According to reports all over the web, Lennar Co. has been officially named in a Florida class action suit over defective drywall.

The significance of Lennar Co.’s involvement with the class action is fairly great, as it begs the question of what exactly distinguishes it from smaller builders who may have also installed Chinese Drywall in homes.   Will these smaller builders soon be named in class actions as well?

It also begs the question of whether class action suits are the answer to homeowner’s woes in the Chinese Drywall crisis.   The question has been hinted here, and written about by Donald Brenner at the Construction Litigation Law Blog.

With regard to the class action suit, Lennar Co. said it had “already established reserves for the estimated cost of replacing the drywall” it has confirmed to be defective Chinese product “to the extent such costs are not covered by insurance.”

As the risk and exposure of builders opens up, the role of a company’s GL insurance will be examined.   More on this later…