NLBMDA-Promoted Initiative Would Provide Liability Protection for Those that Only Sell Products 
 
[Washington, DC] - The National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association (NLBMDA) commended Reps. Dan Boren (D-OK) and Jim Jordan (R-OH) for their reintroduction of the NLBMDA-promoted "Innocent Sellers Fairness Act" (H.R. 2518) which would provide product liability protection to those businesses that only sell products but did not manufacture them.  The bill has been already cosponsored by eight additional members of Congress.
 
"NLBMDA commends Reps. Boren and Jordan for their effort to bring balance back to our legal system by recognizing that business owners that merely sell and do manufacture products should not be held liable for defects which they did not create," said NLBMDA President and CEO Michael O'Brien.
 
Unfounded and unfair lawsuits are increasingly having a negative effect on the ability of building material dealers and distributors to run their business and contribute to their communities. A winter 2008 survey of building material dealers found that more than one in four has been the subject of product liability lawsuits within the past five years; 65 percent of those have been involved in more than one. The high costs of defending such lawsuits ($50,000 - $100,000 according to the Small Business Administration) typically force building material dealers to settle, regardless of the merits of the case. Current law imposes liability without wrongdoing on sellers, and exposes them to all of the damages allegedly suffered by a plaintiff, even though other defendants may have played the critical role in causing the damages. The "mistake" may have been in the manufacture or design of the product, or in a customer's improper use of the product, however the seller is often faced with some or all of the liability.
 
"No amount of care can free a seller from disproportionate product liability, and plaintiffs' lawyers know this--they routinely sue anyone in the chain of distribution of a product, often forcing settlements out of otherwise innocent merchants.  These abusive product liability cases are part of a growing litigation burden on our nation's small businesses and our economy, "said O'Brien.  "This legislation will bring some sanity back to our legal system and we urge Congress to act swiftly on it."

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The National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association (NLBMDA) represents its members in the national public policy arena, with emphasis on efforts to 1) promote the industry and educate legislators and public policy personnel; and 2) assist legislative, regulatory, standard-setting and other government or private bodies in the development of laws, regulations and policies affecting lumber and building material dealers, its customers and suppliers. Founded in 1917, the association has over 6,000 members operating single or multiple lumber yards and component plants serving homebuilders, subcontractors, general contractors, and consumers in the new construction, repair and remodeling of residential and light commercial