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This
story shows how a poorly handled water damage in a den ruined a
home.....
Ed McMahon Sues Over Mold in House
Courts:
Entertainer seeks $20 million from insurer, alleging he was
sickened by substance
after botched repair.
Entertainer
Ed McMahon is suing his insurance company
for more than $20 million, alleging that he was
sickened by toxic mold that spread through his Beverly Hills house
after contractors cleaning up water damage from a
broken pipe botched the job. McMahon and his
wife, Pamela, became ill from the mold, as did
members of their household staff, according to the Los
Angeles County Superior Court suit. The
McMahons also blame the mold for the death of the
family dog, Muffin.
Their suit, the
latest of many in recent years over toxic mold, was
filed late Monday against American Equity Insurance
Co., a pair of insurance adjusters and several
environmental cleanup contractors. It seeks monetary
damages for alleged breach of contract, negligence
and intentional infliction of emotional distress. A spokeswoman for the
insurance company declined to comment.
The trouble began in
late July, when a pipe broke in the couple's six-bedroom Mediterranean-style
house, which was filled with memorabilia from Ed
McMahon's long
television career. The den was flooded. A month later, mold
was discovered in
the den. The McMahons charge
in court papers that they were assured they were safe and could remain in
the house during the cleanup, even as the mold spread through the heating
and air conditioning ducts to their bedroom. It invaded the
closets,
contaminating their clothes. It also was found under the Jacuzzi
in the master bathroom.
The McMahons
questioned the contractors' cleanup methods, including simply painting over the
mold. As the job became more expensive and complex, the insurance company
and its contractors abandoned it, the suit charges.
"They covered
it until they realized how expensive it was, and then they covered
up," said McMahon lawyer Allan Browne. "What they did
was spread the mold by allowing
it to go into the air conditioning and heating ducts. When
they screwed up,
they started saying, 'Maybe we're not responsible for this
job.'"
"When your
family loses its health and your home is a wasteland, that's a
colossal
disaster," McMahon said Tuesday.
The McMahons'
8,000-square-foot house overlooking Coldwater Canyon
stands gutted as the
entertainer, his insurance company and the environmental cleanup contractors
argue over who should pay to finish the cleanup, according to court papers. The
McMahons are renting a $23,000-a-month house and, Browne said, have no
idea where their insurance company has stored their clothing, furniture,
artwork and memorabilia.
"Hopefully,
it's safe, but we don't know where it is," Browne said.
Awareness of toxic
mold has increased in recent years because of a spate of lawsuits.
Among the
most prominent litigants is Erin Brockovich, who
discovered mold in
the house she bought when the story of her legal crusade on
behalf of pollution
victims was turned into a movie starring Julia Roberts. In response to the
increased litigation, insurance rates have spiked in some states. Insurers in
some areas have stopped writing policies or offer only bare-bones ones that
don't cover mold problems.
In June, for
example, Farmers Insurance Group lost a $32-million lawsuit
filed by a Texas family
that claimed toxic mold in their home caused severe health problems. The jury
found that the insurer failed to pay for needed repairs for a water leak, which
allowed mold to grow rampant in the house, making it
uninhabitable.
In California, Gov.
Gray Davis signed the 2001 Toxic Mold Disclosure Act, which went into
effect in January. The law requires anyone selling, leasing or
transferring
property to disclose any potentially dangerous mold problem.
"The mold that
grew in this case was the poisonous variety, stachybotrys
chartarum,"
Browne said. "This is the most dangerous mold of all. It
can cause death in people who
are susceptible to respiratory ailments."
The
McMahons' dog, a
mutt who resembled a sheep dog, was in perfect health until she suddenly
became sick at about the same time the mold was
discovered, Browne
said. "She was a sweetheart of a dog, incredibly smart, as
frisky as you can
imagine," the lawyer said. "All of a sudden she got
this terrible respiratory
ailment, and they had to put her down," Browne said.
And then, McMahon's
and his wife's health began to suffer.
McMahon, best known
as the affable sidekick to talk show host Johnny Carson,
spent most of the fall coughing, sneezing and congested.
"Nobody could figure out why
he was unable to breathe," Browne said. He spent four months on
antibiotics and had to cancel several speaking engagements.
Finally, his doctor ordered
him out of the house and his health improved.
According to
the suit, a pipe burst last July in McMahon's estate in the posh
Coldwater Canyon
section of Los Angeles, causing his den to be flooded.
McMahon made a claim
under his policy with American Equity, which arranged to clean up the damage
caused by the flooding.
"What started
out as a simple plumbing leak ended up a horrific nightmare only Steven King could
write about," McMahon's lawyer Allan Browne told Reuters.
He added the mold
spread through the house with a high concentration in the main
bedroom.
The lawsuit charges
that the contractors painted over visible mold and failed to provide the McMahons
with environmental reports related to the levels of mold infestation despite
repeated requests for documentation.
In addition,
another contractor hired by the insurer to store the McMahons' furniture,
artwork and television memorabilia has not to date returned the
items despite repeated requests to do so, and the McMahons do not
know where their belongings are being stored, Browne
said. "They took away 50 years of memorabilia, all of their fine
art, all of the couches, chairs, every stick of furniture,
we don't even know where any of that is located. The
clothes were taken out and they were supposedly cleaned and it
took months to get them back and once they got them back we found out cleaning
had been
done improperly.... It's just been a nightmare,"
Browne added.
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