Hennigh Law Corporation Wins Award Against Viracon, Inc In Defective Gray PIB Case

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Arbitration Panel enters punitive damages phase after issuing an interim award finding Viracon, Inc., liable for fraud and $13,682,840 in direct damages.

Burbank, CA, June 30, 2022 – Hennigh Law Corporation has announced that, after an over four-year battle in and out of court, a three arbitrator panel issued a 93-page interim award in finding Viracon, Inc., liable for $13,682,840 in direct damages for defrauding the owner of the premier office building in Burbank California, The Pointe. The matter now enters the second phase where the arbitration panel will rule on the amount of punitive damages to assess, as well as attorneys fees and interest.  

Scott Hennigh, trial attorney, states, ​​”The California construction industry is very robust with high standards. The arbitration panel appears to have recognized that California law does not tolerate large out-of-state companies misleading customers. They appear poised to send a message to Viracon about its lack of corporate responsibility.”

The premier Class-A office building in Burbank California, The Pointe, serves high-end tenants in entertainment industries such as Warner Brothers. Constructed in 2009, the 13 exterior curtain wall of the 13-story building is encased in seamless glass panels.  The panels – insulated glass units – are double-paned tempered glass that function as both a window and a wall.  

Viracon assembled and hermetically sealed each unit with a gray colored polyisobutylene sealant (Gray PIB) that was defective. Over time the Gray PIB melted in the sunlight forming a film on the interior sides of the double-paned glass units which destroyed the vision area.  Because the film was between the two windows the IGU cannot be cleaned and needed to be replaced.

Viracon claimed that they did not warrant their product against this particular problem.  However, the arbitration panel determined that Viracon fraudulently concealed knowledge of the defective condition from the building owner, and also that Viracon breached its implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose.  Other buildings around the nation have experienced the same issue, and this is the first case making an evidentiary finding that Viracon, Inc. committed fraud.

Hennigh Law Corporation is a trial firm for complex construction cases. Scott Hennigh has been repeatedly recognized by Chambers USA for his practice in construction law. 

Attorneys for The Pointe Building were Scott Hennigh, Garrett Mott, Azadeh Allayee, Matt Troughton, Erik Gonzalez, and Sylvia Yang of the Hennigh law Corporation. Viracon was represented by John Ekman and Eric Nystrom of Fox Rothschild.

###