In December 2009, CertainTeed Corporation and representatives of owners of buildings on which certain CertainTeed Organic Shingles had been installed reached a proposed class action settlement. CertainTeed no longer manufactures these shingles; all shingles it has sold after 2005 are fiberglass shingles and are not at issue in this suit. The settlement is intended to resolve disputes between the parties about the performance of the shingles. This proposed class action settlement covers the entire United States and Canada.

In a class action lawsuit, one or more people called “Representative Plaintiffs” sue one or more Defendants on behalf of other people who have similar claims. All these people together are a “Class” or “Class Members.” One Court decides all the issues in the lawsuit for all Class Members, except for those who exclude themselves from the Class.

The Representative Plaintiffs allege that the CertainTeed Organic Shingles are subject to premature failure and otherwise do not perform in accordance with the reasonable expectations of users. CertainTeed denies these allegations and asserts that the vast majority of the shingles are free of any defect and will last throughout the warranty period. The proposed Settlement is intended to resolve this dispute. The Court has not decided in favor of either the Class or CertainTeed. The Court’s role in the Settlement is to make sure it is a proper settlement that is fair, reasonable, and adequate for all class members. Important papers from the lawsuit are found on the Case Documents page.

The Court in charge of this lawsuit is the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The name of the lawsuit is In re: CertainTeed Corporation Roofing Shingles Products Liability Litigation, MDL Docket No. 1817. The judge is the Honorable Louis H. Pollak.

Rather than proceeding to litigate through a jury trial, both sides in the lawsuit have agreed to a Settlement. That way, everyone avoids the cost and risk of a trial, and the members of the Class will be eligible to file a claim form to get compensation greater than the original warranty provided if their shingles are defective.

If the Settlement is not approved at the Final Approval Hearing, then the Settlement will terminate and all Class members and Parties will be restored to the positions in which they were before the Settlement Agreement was signed.

The shingles that are the subject of this lawsuit are organic asphalt shingles manufactured from July 1, 1987 through 2005 under the brand names Hallmark Shangle, Independence Shangle, Horizon Shangle, Custom Sealdon, Custom Sealdon 30, Sealdon 20, Sealdon 25, Hearthstead, Solid Slab, Master Slab, Custom Saf-T-Lok, Saf-T-Lok, and Custom Lok 25.

However, not all shingles marketed with these brand names were CertainTeed Organic Shingles. The Horizon, Independence, Hallmark, and Hearthstead brands were marketed in both organic and fiberglass formulations. Also, all shingles CertainTeed sold after 2005 are fiberglass shingles. If your shingles are fiberglass, they are not part of this lawsuit.

Unless you exclude yourself from this Settlement, you're part of the Settlement if you are a Class Member.

You are a Class Member if:

• As of December 15, 2009, you were the owner of a home or other building in the United States or Canada on which CertainTeed Organic Shingles were or had been installed;

OR

• Before December 15, 2009, you owned a building in the United States or Canada on which CertainTeed Organic Shingles were or had been installed but sold or transferred the building and at the time of the sale or transfer retained the right to make a claim for the shingles pursuant to a valid documented assignment;

OR

• You have settled a warranty claim with CertainTeed regarding CertainTeed Organic Shingles between August 1, 2006, and the Effective Date of this Agreement.

Yes. You are not a Class Member even if you fit the Class Member definition if:

• You exclude yourself from this Settlement;
• You previously filed a claim concerning your CertainTeed Organic Shingles in any court of law, and the claim was resolved with a final judgment, whether or not that judgment was favorable to you;
• You are or were a builder, developer, contractor, manufacturer, wholesaler, or retailer of real estate or real property (except as to personal residences or commercial property that you own or owned);
• You are a company that owns or is owned by CertainTeed, you are CertainTeed or its successor, or you are an agent of CertainTeed; or
• You are the Judge in this lawsuit, or a member of the Judge’s immediate family.

No. To qualify for a payment, you must meet three more criteria:

• The shingles about which you are filing your claim must meet the definition of Damage as set forth in the Settlement Agreement. Shingles that show blistering, clawing, cracking, curling, cold weather curling, fishmouthing, or spalling as defined in the Settlement Agreement are Damaged.
• The Damage must occur prior to the end of the shingles’ warranty period.
• The Damage must be caused by a product defect, not by circumstances beyond CertainTeed’s control such as improper installation or maintenance.

You must also file a claim before the applicable deadlines.

There are several ways to find out if you have CertainTeed Organic Shingles:

• Check your purchase or repair documents. You may have receipts, warranties, bills of sales, or brochures from when you purchased or repaired your shingles. These documents may say that CertainTeed Organic Shingles were installed on your property.



• The contractor or company that installed or repaired your shingles may know whether or not CertainTeed Organic Shingles were installed.



• See if you still have packaging material for the shingles. The roofer may have left a package of leftover shingles in your garage or basement and you may be able to identify them from the packaging.



• Ask a roofer. An experienced roofer may be able to tell by looking at your roof whether you may have CertainTeed Organic Shingles.



• Have a roofing professional remove a shingle from your roof and send it in to CertainTeed for identification. CertainTeed will reimburse you up to US $50.00 for the expenses you incur, but only if the shingles are determined to have been manufactured by CertainTeed.

This proposed class action Settlement covers all of the CertainTeed Organic Shingles that are installed on buildings throughout the United States and Canada. However, you should be aware that CertainTeed’s sales records indicate that over 94% of CertainTeed Organic Shingles were sold in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Therefore, if you live in the U.S. but do not live in one of those states, it is less likely that your shingles are the ones addressed in this lawsuit. There were few Canadian sales, and shingles that were sold in Canada were sold in the Burlington, Kitchener, Thunder Bay, Toronto, Pickering, and Windsor regions of Ontario and in Winnipeg, Manitoba. If you live elsewhere in Canada, it is less likely your shingles are CertainTeed Organic Shingles.

The amount paid per claimant depends upon a number of factors such as (1) whether the claimant originally purchased the shingles; (2) the terms of the warranty; (3) how many Damaged shingles are on the roof; (4) how long the shingles have been on the roof; (5) whether the shingles are Damaged as defined in the Settlement Agreement; (6) whether the damage was due to a manufacturing defect or was caused by circumstances outside of CertainTeed’s control; and (7) whether the claimant has already settled the warranty claim under CertainTeed’s standard warranty.

That depends on your individual circumstances. Find the claimant description in the first column of the chart below that best fits your individual circumstances. The column that appears to the right in the chart will explain how the amount you may receive will be calculated if your shingle satisfy

The following conditions of CertainTeed Organic Shingles will be deemed to constitute "Damage to CertainTeed Organic Shingles":

1. an open hollow bump, 19 mm or more diameter, in the coating layer of the shingle resulting in the underlying asphalt being weathered (that is, oxidized and dirty), also known as "blistering";



2. corners and edges of shingle tabs that are curled downward toward the deck surface raising the portion of the tab just interior to the edges by more than 1/2", also known as "clawing";



3. cracks in the top-coating of the shingle penetrating through the organic felt that present a source for leakage, also known as "cracking";



4. tab corners that are raised above the plane of the deck by more than 1/2" on shingles manufactured more than ten years before the submission of the claim, or by at least 3/8" on shingles manufactured less than ten years before the submission of the claim, also known as "curling";



5. tab corners that are raised above the plane of the deck by at least 3/4" after being placed in a freezer at 0° for 15 minutes, also known as "cold weather curling";



6. puckers of at least 1/4" that appear along the side and bottom edges of the tabs, also know as "fishmouthing"; and



7. a loss of top surface of the shingle resulting in an exposure of the substrate equal in size to a dime, also known as "spalling".

A “square” simply means 100 square feet of roofing shingles.

Payments are “prorated” as specified in each payment formula depending on the length of the shingle warranty. “Prorated” means that the payment will be reduced proportionally to account for the years of use you have already received from your shingles. For example, if you were to submit a Claim concerning shingles warranted for 30 years (360 months) exactly 12 years after they were installed, you would have used the Shingles for 144 months, and 216 months would remain on the original warranty. Your payment would be calculated by multiplying the non-prorated compensation amount by 60%, which is the percentage of the warranty that remains (216/360).

No. This is a claims made settlement. That means that each valid claim will be paid in accordance with the formulas set forth in the Settlement Agreement. The amount paid per claimant is fixed as specified in the Settlement Agreement regardless of how many or how few claims are actually filed.

Although the Settlement replaces and supplements benefits under the original warranty, it does not diminish any SureStart or SureStart Plus Protection that you may have. You may still make a claim under those provisions of your warranty.

If you participate in the Settlement, you can still file any claims for compensatory damages that you may have for harm to any interior part of your building below the roof deck or any personal injury claims that you believe were caused by premature deterioration of the CertainTeed Organic Shingles. However, you would not be able to file claims for attorneys’ fees, penalties, punitive damages, or any other damages in excess of compensatory damages, which you otherwise could have made in connection with those claims.

No. Under the Settlement Agreement you are not permitted to assign your claim to anybody else. However, if you sell your property and do not retain the right to make a claim for the shingles with a valid documented assignment, the buyer of your property may obtain your right to make a claim for the shingles, as long as that buyer is qualified to make such a claim under the transferability provisions of the applicable CertainTeed warranty.

Check the warranty length of your shingles in the chart below:

If you purchased the shingles yourself, bought the building as new construction, or contracted with a roofer to install the shingles, you are covered by the warranty. If you bought the building from a previous owner with the shingles already installed, whether you are covered by the warranty depends on the transferability provisions of the applicable warranty – that is, the warranty for the type of shingles on the building issued during the year the shingles were installed. If you know what type of CertainTeed Organic Shingles are on your roof, you can check the warranty for those shingles in the Claim Eligibility section of this website. If you are still unsure whether you are covered, call 1-888-898-4111 for assistance.

You are eligible to submit the Abbreviated Claim form instead of the Standard Claim form only if:

• you settled a warranty claim for CertainTeed Organic Shingles with CertainTeed on or after August 1, 2006;

OR

• CertainTeed offered you a settlement for your CertainTeed Organic Shingles but you did not accept the offer.

Your "claim number" is your CertainTeed Warranty Claim Number or File Number. If you do not know your claim/file number, you may leave blank the spaces on the Claim Form that request your claim number.

That depends on your individual circumstances. Find the claimant description in the first column of the chart below that best fits your individual circumstances. The column that appears to the right in the chart will explain the deadline that should apply to you.

No. Do not submit a claim form if your shingles have not deteriorated. The Settlement provides for claims to be paid only if the shingles meet the criteria for a damaged shingle that are set forth in the Settlement Agreement.

No. Do not submit a claim form if your shingles have been on the building throughout the warranty period. In this case, you have no claim.

If CertainTeed offered you a settlement that you did not accept and you now wish to make a claim under this Settlement Agreement, you will be considered to have rejected the original offer but will be eligible to recover according to the terms of the Settlement Agreement.

Yes. The value of the rebate will be included in determining the amount that you will receive under the Settlement Agreement.

The Court is currently considering whether or not to approve the Settlement. If the Court approves the Settlement, CertainTeed will begin reviewing each Claim Form submitted. Please note that there is often delay after a Settlement like this is approved. For example, there may be appeals of the Court’s order approving the Settlement, and payments can’t be made unless appeals are finished and the Court’s Order is upheld. Because of this, there could be a delay before the first claims are reviewed and paid. The claims will generally be reviewed and paid on a first-come, first-served basis.

If you believe CertainTeed wrongly denied your claim, you will be able to appeal to an Independent Claims Administrator. The Independent Claims Administrator will be appointed after the Settlement Effective Date.

You do not have to take part in the Settlement or be a Member of the Class. You can do what is called “excluding” yourself or “opting out.”

If you exclude yourself, you cannot get a payment and you cannot object to the Settlement. Any Court orders will not apply to you. You keep any right to file or proceed with a lawsuit about the shingles that you may have.

To exclude yourself, you must send written notice of your decision to request exclusion via first class mail to Class Counsel at any ONE of the following addresses:

AUDET & PARTNERS, LLP
Michael McShane, Esquire
221 Main Street, Suite 1460
San Francisco, CA 94105

OR

CUNEO GILBERT & LADUCA, LLP
Charles LaDuca, Esquire
507 C Street NE
Washington, D.C. 20002

OR

LOCKRIDGE GRINDAL NAUEN P.L.L.P
Robert K. Shelquist, Esquire
Suite 2200
100 Washington Avenue South
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55401

Your request for exclusion should include the caption of this case, In re: CertainTeed Corporation Roofing Shingles Products Liability Litigation, MDL Docket No. 1817, and must:

• be signed by you and your attorney, if you have one;



• state the address of the property or properties that you wish to exclude from the Settlement;



• specify the number of units of residential property or other structures at each address that you believe may contain CertainTeed Organic Shingles.

Your request for exclusion from the Settlement must be postmarked or personally delivered by May 11, 2010.

You will lose your right to exclude yourself. There are no exceptions. YOU WILL BE BOUND BY ANY JUDGMENT IN THIS CASE AND YOU WILL NOT BE PERMITTED TO PURSUE ANY PENDING OR FUTURE LITIGATION ON MATTERS RESOLVED IN THIS SETTLEMENT.

You will be bound by any judgment in this case and you will not be permitted to pursue any pending or future litigation on matters resolved in this Settlement.

You will be bound by any judgment in this case and you will not be permitted to pursue your current case or future litigation on matters resolved in this Settlement.

You will be bound by any judgment in this case and you will not be permitted to pursue any pending or future litigation on matters resolved in this Settlement.

No. If you exclude yourself, you cannot get any money from the Settlement, and you cannot tell the Court that you don’t like the Settlement (which is called “objecting”). If you exclude yourself, you are no longer part of the Class or the Settlement. But you can sue or be part of a different lawsuit against CertainTeed about the claims in this case.

If you’re a Class Member and don’t exclude yourself, you can object to the Settlement. This means you can tell the Court you don’t like the Settlement or some part of it. For example, you can say you don’t think the Settlement is fair or adequate or that you object to the amount of the attorneys’ fees, costs, or expenses. The Court will consider your views but may approve the Settlement anyway.

To object, you or your lawyer must prepare a letter that contains all of the following:

• The caption of the lawsuit, In re: CertainTeed Corporation Roofing Shingles Products Liability Litigation, MDL Docket No. 1817.



• A written statement of objections clearly specifying the grounds or reasons for each objection.



• A statement of whether or not you or your lawyer will ask to appear at the Final Approval Hearing to talk about your objections, and, if so, how long you will need to present your objections;



• Copies of any documents you or your lawyer will present at the Final Approval Hearing; and



• Your signature and that of your attorney, if you have one.

Your objection letter must be postmarked or received no later than April 26, 2010.

Your objection letter must be sent to the Court, Class Counsel, and CertainTeed at the addresses below:

The Court:

Clerk of the Court
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
Byrne Federal Courthouse
601 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106-1797.

Class Counsel:

AUDET & PARTNERS, LLP
Michael McShane, Esquire
221 Main Street, Suite 1460
San Francisco, CA 94105

OR

CUNEO GILBERT & LADUCA, LLP
Charles LaDuca, Esquire
507 C Street NE
Washington, D.C. 20002

OR

LOCKRIDGE GRINDAL NAUEN P.L.L.P
Robert K. Shelquist, Esquire
Suite 2200
100 Washington Avenue South
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55401

CertainTeed Corporation:

Lawrence T. Hoyle, Jr., Esquire
Hoyle, Fickler, Herschel & Mathes LLP
Suite 1500, One South Broad Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107

Objecting is the way to tell the Court what you don’t like about the Settlement. You can object only if you stay in the Class and the Settlement.

Excluding yourself is the way to tell the Court that you don’t want to be a part of the Class and the Settlement and that you want to keep the right to file your own lawsuit. If you exclude yourself, you can’t object because the Settlement doesn’t affect you any more.

If you have CertainTeed Organic Shingles on your building, all decisions made by the Court in this lawsuit or about the Settlement will apply to you. If the Court approves the Settlement, you will have released CertainTeed from any further claims against it about the issues settled in this lawsuit, and you can’t ever sue CertainTeed again about these issues. This is true even if you do not send in a Claim Form for a payment.

However, you will retain the right to make a claim under the Settlement Agreement until your warranty expires, which may be as long as 25 years from now.

The Court has designated the following lawyers to represent you and all Class Members. Together, these lawyers are called Lead Class Counsel. You will not be charged for these lawyers. The names and addresses of Lead Class Counsel are as follows:

Charles J. LaDuca
Cuneo Gilbert & LaDuca, LLP
507 C Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002
(202) 789-3960
charlesl@cuneolaw.com

Michael McShane
Audet and Partners LLP
221 Main Street
Suite 1460
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 568-2555
mmcshane@audetlaw.com

Robert K. Shelquist
Lockridge, Grindal Nauen, P.L.L.P.
100 Washington Avenue South, Suite 2200
Minneapolis, MN 55401
(612) 339-6900
rkshelquist@locklaw.com

Arnold Levin
Charles E. Schaffer
Levin, Fishbein, Sedran & Berman, P.C.
510 Walnut Street, Suite 600
Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 592-1500
cschaffer@lfsblaw.com

The lawyers who represent the Class will ask the Court for reimbursement of their out of pocket expenses and an award of attorneys’ fees based on their work in this litigation. The amount of attorneys’ fees to be awarded will be determined solely by the Court. The amount of the award will in large part be based on the amount of time spent by the lawyers litigating this case since early 2006. The amount of expenses and fees awarded by the Court will not decrease or in any manner limit the amount of money class members will receive under the Settlement. A Motion for attorneys’ fees, expenses, and costs shall be submitted to the Court no later than May 4, 2010. The Court must approve any requests for fees, expenses, and costs.

Class Counsel have reached an agreement that CertainTeed will not oppose a request for attorneys’ fees and reimbursement of costs so long as the sum total of Class Counsel’s request related to the prosecution of the CertainTeed Organic Shingle claims being settled is equal to or less than $22,500,000.00. Accordingly, Class Counsel will revise their CertainTeed Organic Shingle Settlement fee request for all law firms that worked on the MDL litigation to $21,887,000.00 and their cost reimbursement request for all such firms to $613,000.00 at the final approval hearing scheduled for June 8, 2010. If you would like to receive a copy of the revised Class Counsel Fee request, you may contact any one of the Class Counsel, identified in question number 48.

No. All attorneys’ fees and cost reimbursement are being paid by CertainTeed over-and-above the settlement amounts stated in the Organic Shingle Settlement Agreement. Accordingly, the amounts reflected in the Settlement Agreement and to which you may be entitled will not be reduced and you will not be asked now or later to pay to any one of the Class Counsel any of the amounts that you receive pursuant to the CertainTeed Organic Shingle Settlement.

You may provide comments to Class Counsel on or before June 8, 2010, regarding the agreement between Class Counsel and CertainTeed to pay fees and reimburse costs related to the prosecution and settlement of the CertainTeed Organic Shingle claims.

Yes. To compensate them for work in this litigation, each Named Plaintiff in each of the actions covered by the Settlement (including cases consolidated in Multi-District Litigation, a roofing shingle action brought in Pennsylvania, and an action brought in Canada) will be paid an incentive payment provided the shingles that were the subject of their complaint were CertainTeed Organic Shingles. If the class representative was deposed, he or she will receive an incentive payment of US$5,000; if he or she was not deposed, the incentive payment will be US$2,500. CertainTeed will not be required to make more than one such incentive payment to any individual regardless of the number of his or her properties subject to this Settlement.

The District Court will hold a Final Approval Hearing at 10:00 a.m. on June 8, 2010. At this hearing, the Court will consider whether or not the Settlement is fair, reasonable and adequate. If there are written objections, the Court will consider them, and the Court will listen to people who have asked to speak at the hearing. After the hearing, the Court will decide whether or not to approve the Settlement.

The Hearing will be held at: United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Courtroom 16(a), James A. Byrne Federal Courthouse, 601 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106-1797.

No. Class Counsel will answer questions the Court may have. But you are welcome to come at your own expense. If you send a written objection, you don’t have to come to Court to talk about it. As long as you mailed your written objection on time, the Court will consider it. You may also pay your own lawyer to attend, but it’s not necessary.

Yes. As long as you don’t exclude yourself, you have the right to appear through counsel at the Final Approval Hearing, so long as your Notice of Appearance and any written objections you may have are postmarked or received by the Court, CertainTeed, and Class Counsel by April 26, 2010. If you do this, however, the cost of having your lawyer appear will be at your own expense.

The Settlement Effective Date will be 30 days from the Court’s Order giving final approval to the Settlement if there are no appeals, but if there are appeals the date will be later. When the date becomes known, it will be posted on this website.

This website summarizes the Settlement and your rights under the Settlement. It cannot tell you every right to which you may be entitled. To obtain further information or advice about your legal rights, you may contact Class Counsel or consult a lawyer at your own expense.

More details about the terms of the Settlement are set forth in the Settlement Agreement. If you have questions or want to know more about the Settlement, you can contact the Claims Administrator or Class Counsel.

You can also look at and copy the legal documents filed in this lawsuit at any time during regular office hours at the Office of the Clerk of the Court, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, James A. Byrne Federal Courthouse, 601 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106-1797.