Plaintiffs’ Counsel Appointed in Price-Fixing Claims Against Cedar Shake and Shingle Manufacturers
A federal court in Seattle has appointed Christopher J. Cormier and a legal team at Burns Charest LLP as co-lead counsel in a proposed federal class action against a group of manufacturers of cedar shakes and shingles, and the industry’s trade association.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for Western District of Washington, alleges that the companies conspired to artificially inflate the price of Certi-Label cedar shakes and shingles sold to indirect reseller plaintiffs, such as contractors, construction companies and roofers, in the U.S. The litigation includes detailed evidence of improper pricing discussions among the defendants as well as detailed economic analysis showing that the price of the materials has increased substantially since early 2011.
“The public must be protected when companies conspire to fix prices because this conduct harms not only cedar shake and shingle purchasers in particular but also fundamental principles of fair competition in general,” said Mr. Cormier. “We allege that the proposed class we represent has been forced to pay inflated prices for already expensive building materials for a number of years, and we are eager to roll up our sleeves and get to work in seeking recovery for them in this case.”
The class action claim, originally filed in April 2019, alleges that the price increases cannot be explained by ordinary market forces and instead are a result of the defendants’ anticompetitive pricing conspiracy. The lawsuit also claims that the companies conspired with the Washington-based Cedar Shake & Shingle Bureau, the industry’s trade association, to muscle out upstart and discount competitors from the market, thus preserving the defendants’ ability to charge artificially high prices for their products.
U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman has also appointed the firm of Portland-based Stoll Berne to serve as co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs with the Burns Charest team.
The case is Fraser Construction Company et al v. Cedar Shake & Shingle Bureau et al. Case No. 2:19-cv-00451-MJP in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
The firm has offices in Dallas, Denver, and New Orleans.
