$33 million award in toxic-mold suit slashed

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http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/business/1709434

Dec. 19, 2002, 3:57PM

$33 million award in toxic-mold suit slashed

Associated Press

AUSTIN - A state appeals court threw out most of a $33 million jury verdict

against Farmers Insurance Group today, knocking the award down to the $4

million range for a Dripping Springs family's toxic mold claims.

The Third District Court of Appeals said it could not support the jury's

findings that a Farmers' subsidiary had " knowingly " breached its duty of

good faith and fair dealing toward Melinda Ballard, who had sued the company

over water and mold damage in her 22-room Southern mansion in the Hill

Country.

The original 2001 verdict sent shock waves through the insurance industry,

which has since blamed rising claims for mold and water damage as a key

reason behind escalating homeowners insurance rates.

Ballard and her husband, Ron , said they had to leave their home in

1999 after toxic black mold made it uninhabitable.

Today's ruling left intact a $4 million award for actual damages, but threw

out $17 million for mental anguish and punitive damages and ordered that

$8.9 million in attorney's fees be recalculated and likely reduced.

Ballard and Farmers declined immediate comment.