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Student, staff lawsuits target mold in schools
By Jamie Malernee- Education Writer
Posted September 20 2003 Sun-Sentinel.com

After years of watching her son suffer from severe symptoms -- vomiting in class and at home, having to endure 78 allergy injections, 22 prescribed medications, CAT scans and two surgeries to drain his sinuses -- Cara Aliseo finally pulled him out of his mold-plagued elementary school.

He's been healthy ever since, she said.

On Friday, Aliseo spoke out about the mold problems as one of 18 parties to file lawsuits against the Broward County School District.

Filed on behalf of 13 students and seven employees, the lawsuits allege Riverside and Indian Trace elementary schools were more than just petri dishes for the "black snow" and sludge that grew inside walls and blew through the air conditioning systems.

They allege the Coral Springs and Weston schools were not only defectively built and maintained, but that officials ignored the problems for years and, when they were finally forced to fix things, remediation efforts were shoddy and in some cases made things worse.

"I was told the School Board would not keep children in a place that was not safe," Aliseo recalls when she first began to question the connection between her son's symptoms and Riverside. "But since the day he left, he has not taken a single antibiotic."

Lawyers for Aliseo and other parents say the 18 lawsuits filed in Broward Circuit Court are only the "first wave" of mold litigation to hit the district following a scathing grand jury report released in May.

The report renounced the district's handling of mold issues and all but invited parents and workers to seek damages for their exposure and concurrent health problems, which include nose bleeds, respiratory infections, rashes, chronic cough and lost sense of taste.

Also named in the suit are Superintendent Frank Till and the School Board, as well as architects, engineers, roofers, contractors, mold remediation experts and clean-up workers associated with the schools.

"Each day that goes by, we receive additional phone calls. We suspect this is a Broward County-wide problem ..." said Boca Raton attorney Scott Gelfand.

School district spokesman Joe Donzelli said new administrators have put better procedures in place to address concerns, have revamped Riverside Elementary, and are investing millions of dollars to properly clean other campuses.

In addition to seeking "major monetary damages" for pain and suffering, medical expenses and future medical monitoring, the lawsuits ask for an injunction against the school district, requiring it to meet all 31 improvement recommendations listed in the scathing grand jury report. School officials say most of those recommendations have already been met voluntarily.

Insurance Companies Resist Paying Mold Insurance
Mold-Related Lawsuits Rising
Tracy Davidson, NBC 10 Consumer Reporter
Toxic Mold Lawsuit from: NBC10.com
August 2003

Many insurance companies are calling mold the new asbestos.

Thousands of insurance claims have poured in across the country seeking damages from mold and now insurance companies are fighting back, saying the suits are based on junk science.

For civil litigation attorneys, mold is gold. Since 1999, mold-related lawsuits against building contractors, insurance companies, hotels, schools and airports have increased by 300 percent, and 10,000 suits are pending nationwide.

"It's our conclusion that the current literature does not provide any reason to believe that in the indoor environment one could or would inhale a toxic dose of microtoxins, [or mycotoxins ]" said Brian Hardin of Globaltox Inc., a consulting company on toxic environmental hazards.

In 2001, a Texas jury awarded $32 million in damages to a family that claimed severe illness from exposure to toxic mold in their home. That opened a floodgate of litigation in places like Texas and Florida.

"The mold claims have driven up the cost of construction. They've driven up in terms of the inability to obtain insurance coverage," said Anita Drummond, of the Associated Builders and Contractors.

"Something like mold can have a dramatic impact on homes being built and the resale market. If you own a home and for some reason you've been there 15 or 20 years and you had a small leak you didn't know about and you have mold in your home that's been discovered, you can't sell your home. That does not do anything to help individuals, nor does it do anything to stimulate the economy -- quite the opposite," said Rep. Gary Miller, from California.

Mold plaintiffs and mold lawyers say the insurance industry is trying to shirk its responsibility to mold-stricken policyholders.

"They need to abide by their end of the deal. The people that pay their premiums, the insurance companies take it, yet when they take the money they don't want to pay on valid claims. Mold claims, the right mold claims, are, in fact, real. People do get sick from them and the insurance companies just don't want to pay. That is really the problem," said Robert Steiberg, an attorney.

Experts say mold thrives in new, well-insulated houses that trap heat and moisture. Right now there is an entire nationwide mold remediation industry devoted to ferreting out the fungus.

Ed McMahon's Killer Mold Problem
Apr 12, 2003

Former Tonight Show sidekick Ed McMahon and his wife, Pamela, have filed a $20 million-plus lawsuit accusing his insurance company and contractors of making a toxic-mold "wasteland" of his Beverly Hills home and leaving him and his wife "seriously ill." Not to mention claiming the life of the beloved family pooch, Muffin.

The lawsuit was filed Monday in Los Angeles. It names American Equity Insurance Co., two insurance adjustors and a host of contractors. A call today for comment to American Equity's parent company went unreturned.

In a nutshell, the complaint charges that American Equity, helped out by those various adjustors and contractors, turned a simple broken pipe in the den into a moldy morass that spread from room to room (and from vent to vent).

McMahon, well versed in flubs via his long association with those TV blooper specials, termed this series of alleged bloopers a "colossal disaster." (As in, per the Los Angeles Times, "When your family loses its health and your home is a wasteland, that's a colossal disaster.")

According to the lawsuit, McMahon's troubles began in July 2001 when that aforementioned pipe went bust in the den. That led to flooding, which led to mold, which led to fixer-uppers being called out to fix everything up. A month after the initial mishap, the lawsuit says, contractors removed ceiling tile in the den, spreading the pesky mold to the Jacuzzi in the master bedroom.

This was no small matter because, as the lawsuit asserts, and you must now acknowledge, the 79-year-old Ed and his bride of 10 years spend most of their time in the master bedroom.

Anyway, instead of getting better, the McMahons argue, the mold problem kept on getting worse, aided by the spurious spores getting into the home's heating and air conditioning ducts.

Faster than you can say "Erin Brockovich" (who once filed her own toxic-mold lawsuit), the insurance company allegedly dropped the ball--failing to test for mold levels, failing to properly investigate the McMahons' complaints, failing to reimburse them for their costs, and even trying to remedy the problem by painting over the stuff.

All of this lack of fresh air caused McMahon and the Mrs. (and "their staff") to get sick. The never-say-retire McMahon even had to cancel gigs on account of a mold-induced respiratory ailment, his camp charges.

But at least McMahon, the Mrs. and their staff are all still with us. The same can't be said for Muffin McMahon. "Indeed," the lawsuit says, "Plaintiffs' dog died from mold-related illness."

According to the Times, the McMahons have since left their sick house and retreated to a $23,000-a-month rental. They want American Equity to cough up the dough for this expense, plus compensate them for their property loss and pain and suffering stemming from their abandoned "wasteland."

Of course, nothing will bring back Muffin.

"She was a sweetheart of a dog," McMahon attorney Allan Browne told the Times, "incredibly smart, as frisky as you can imagine.