Jury awards Marvin Windows $135.8 million in preservative case

District Court in St. Paul, and Pittsburgh-based PPG said Friday it would appeal. The trial began last October.

``This is certainly a milestone for us. We are very pleased about the jury's verdict,'' Brenda Baumann, a spokeswoman for Marvin Windows, said Friday.

But Baumann called it only a ``partial reimbursement,'' saying the company has had to spend millions of dollars replacing defective products, and will continue to do so until 2004.

Marvin Windows makes made-to-order wood and clad wood windows and doors. Besides the headquarters plant in Warroad, it has plants in Fargo, N.D.; Grafton, N.D.; Ripley, Tenn.; and Baker, Ore.

In 2000, a federal appeals court upheld a 1999 ruling by U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery dismissing several other claims made by Marvin Windows against PPG. The panel decided, however, that there were enough questions to put to a jury about the existence of a warranty on the wood preservative's future performance and whether such a warranty was breached.

PPG said in a prepared statement that the verdict was unexpected. The company maintains that its preservative was not defective, saying it has been in use for 20 years.

The company is a global supplier of coatings, glass, fiberglass and chemicals. Sales in 2001 were $8.2 billion.

Privately owned Marvin Windows would not release last year's sales figures.

Marvin Windows filed the lawsuit in 1994, saying it spent tens of millions of dollars replacing windows and doors that had rotted prematurely, and alleging that PPG's PILT wood preservative was to blame.

In afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, PPG shares were up $1.20 at $49.51.