Saint John kia

Sussex family moves ahead with legal action

SUSSEX - It will be up to a judge to decide if Kia owes the Gray family of Sussex more than a promise to repair its rotten car if the family agrees to absolve the car company of responsibility for its poor health.

Greedy is not a word Crystal McLaughlin-Gray would use to describe herself, but she cannot accept an offer while her young family is still running to doctors.

Shortly after the Grays bought the car new from Saint John Kia in 2006, they noticed a rancid smell that could not be professionally cleaned. Kia blamed the smell on Scotch guarding, McLaughlin-Gray explained.

For nearly two years the health of the family, consisting of Crystal, her husband Pat and their two elementary-school aged children, suffered. It was unexplainable, McLaughlin-Gray says, since all members of the family were having the same problem breathing and being diagnosed and medicated for lung infections and pneumonia an unusual amount.

In September, after the family noticed the rotting taking place in the trunk and the car's back seat, an unaffiliated Sussex car dealership examined the car and found a manufacturer's defect led to a leak in the trunk. Through the seasons water continually made its way under the back seats and caused rotting.

An independent lab in Fredericton took samples of the mould and deemed the car dangerous to be in, and concluded the moulds could cause all the problems the Grays were suffering with.

Kia's last offer in mid-November was to cover the car's $3,200 in repairs if the Grays signed a waiver absolving the company of any further liability for their health problems.

And while the Grays' lawyer Donald Keenan gave the company one month to make a "reasonable gesture," there has been no more word from Kia, McLaughlin-Gray said on Friday, Kia's deadline day.

Legal action has already been filed and McLaughlin-Gray believes the family has no option now but to pursue it.

"The gesture they made for us to sign a health waiver is not acceptable. If I didn't think these were legitimate health issues, I would sign a waiver," McLaughlin-Gray said, "but we are still on puffers and seeing specialists."

The Grays are driving a second-hand car while the Spectra, which they still make monthly payments on, sits abandoned behind their Sussex home. It is still rotten inside so badly that part of the seatbelt that held five-year-old Marcus's booster seat snapped.

Meanwhile, everyone in the family has seen some improvement in their breathing since they stopped driving the car in September. Crystal's lung test now shows lung function of a 57-year-old smoker, instead of the 60-year-old results she got several weeks ago. She is 20 years young than that, is an active school guidance counsellor and doesn't smoke.

Her 35-year-old husband Pat's test results still show that of a 70-year-old, even though he will say that the heaviness in his chest has lightened a bit and makes breathing easier. The kids are spending less time in the doctor's office and on antibiotics, the mom explained. Her youngest, Marcus, was "choking to death" in the car, and now rarely makes the same sound of severely restricted breathing that, a couple months ago, came regularly.

"These were all health issues we had never faced in our lives," McLaughlin-Gray said. "My hope is that we will keep getting better and better, but in the event that this mould has caused damage long-term in any of us, then I expect Kia to help us, I really do.

Quite simply, McLaughlin-Gray cannot be hasty in signing a waiver on her family's health when they are still not in the clear medically.

"We were never asking for oodles of money from them, we just wanted to be treated fairly. Now energy is being put into a lawsuit that should be spent on us getting better."

In past newspaper stories McLaughlin-Gray repeatedly said a similar replacement car would be fair. Kia wouldn't go for it largely because even though the Grays have receipts showing all their service work done on the vehicle, they didn't travel 45 minutes away to get it done at Saint John Kia.