Jury Decides in Favor of Trailer Companies

By Eileen Fleming

New Orleans, La. – After eight days of testimony, the panel cleared Gulf Stream Coach company and government installers of negligence. Alana Alexander and her 12-year-old son, Christopher Cooper, lived in a trailer provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for 19 months after Katrina. They claim the boy's asthma got worse during that time because formaldehyde levels were too high, but the company's lawyers argued that those levels were within some federal guidelines The government was not a defendant in the case after a judge found the two-year statute of limitations had expired. Class-action status was denied last year.
For NPR News, I'm Eileen Fleming in New Orleans.