Jury will hear closing arguments Monday

[Guest guest]

Inspector: Mold and rot worst she's seen

Jury will hear closing arguments Monday

http://www.pjstar.com/stories/042405/REG_B67E9B1Q.001.shtml

Sunday, April 24, 2005

By

of the journal star

lacon - The mold-infested rural Varna home that has been the focus

of a civil trial in Marshall County Circuit Court last week made a

memorable impression on the industrial hygiene expert who inspected

it slightly more than five years ago.

" I've been in a lot of bad mold-contaminated areas. This was the

worst situation for wood rot that I had ever seen, " Naschert

testified Friday in a trial over allegations that the home's

previous owner and a Realtor concealed its condition from a couple

who bought it in July 1999.

Naschert, president of Industrial Hygiene Services Inc. in Peoria,

inspected the two-bedroom ranch in the lakeside subdivision of Lake

Wildwood that December for Caroline and Gerald Stoddart, who had

bought it five months earlier as a retirement home. They had

contacted her though a national organization of certified industrial

hygienists after a magazine article about toxic mold sparked fears

that such organisms might be present in deteriorating wood in the

home's crawl space.

And their fears were confirmed almost as soon as Naschert wriggled

through the small opening into that area and saw floor joists

darkened by moisture exposure and " white fuzzy material " growing on

some.

" It was very unusual for me to see so much mold contamination as I

saw in that house, " said Naschert, who added the condition had

existed for " years. "

She said a general standard at that time for an acceptable level of

mold was 50 active " colony-forming units, " or CFU's, of fungi or

bacteria in a gram or square inch of material.

But a sample taken from a joist, which was so rotten that she could

simply break it off in her hand, contained more than 11 million

units, Naschert said, or some 220,000 times that level.

The effects were observable in living areas as well, she added. One

bedpost had gone through the floor and was being supported only by

carpet, and the bathroom floor was " like a trampoline, " she said.

" I have never seen anything like that, " Naschert said. " I seriously

thought I was going to fall through (the floor). "

The danger that someone might do just that was one reason that

Naschert urged the Stoddarts to move out of the house. The other was

the risk that airborne mold could cause health problems to

occupants.

The Stoddarts, now both 73, moved out of the house shortly

thereafter and have been living in rental homes ever since. Their

lawsuit is an attempt to recover the $68,500 purchase price, rent

payments and other expenses from the estate of the previous owner,

Virginia Landers of Chicago, and real estate broker Tamela Durham of

Lake Wildwood.

No one has been in the house since the Stoddarts moved out, they

said Friday. But it's likely the mold has been progressing, Naschert

said outside court.

Landers, son of Virginia Landers and administrator of her

estate, testified Friday that he knew of only two occasions when the

crawl space was badly flooded because of a sump pump failure. He

maintained he knew nothing about floor problems.

Durham denied the Stoddarts' allegation that she advised them

against getting a pre-sale home inspection.

She also denied having any knowledge of the home's problems.

" I disclose anything that I'm aware of that could potentially

concern a buyer, " she testified.

Circuit Judge Shore sent the trial jurors home late Friday

afternoon with instructions to return for closing arguments Monday

morning.

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