Mold suit ends in failure - Texas

[Guest guest]

Mold suit ends in failure

By: Burton Speakman, Courier staff

11/13/2005

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?

newsid=15572441 & BRD=1574 & PAG=461 & dept_id=532215 & rfi=6

Peggy Dentler and her husband moved into a home in Oak Ridge

North at 26922 Maplewood in 1998 that previously had flood damage.

After living in the home four months, it flooded. When filing their

insurance claim, they discovered the home had flooded several times

previously, Peggy Dentler said. The couple sued the previous owner

for not disclosing the history.

During depositions, a lawyer asked them about health problems.

The family had made 43 visits to the doctor within an 18-month

period while living in the home. The health problems primarily

stemmed from upper respiratory issues, bronchitis, strange rashes,

nosebleeds, shingles, ear infections and scarlet fever.

During the time after flooding, Peggy Dentler was pregnant with

triplets and lost two of the fetuses. They also had a family pet die

with a " softball-sized " tumor removed during an autopsy from the 8-

pound, 9-ounce puppy, she said.

The tumor tested positive for Aspergillus Penicillium, the same form

of mold that was found in the home.

Medical records could not determine what killed the two fetuses,

Peggy Dentler said.

" But I feel in my heart the mold killed them, and that's when we got

out of the house because I was worried about losing Hope (the

remaining triplet). "

At that time, Peggy was seeing specialists in Houston several times

a week, she said.

The California family claimed toxic mold in their home caused brain

damage in their baby and sued the lumber company and 16 other

defendants.

They claimed their son became sick because of mold on framing studs

that had been improperly stored by the lumber company, which agreed

to pay $13 million of the settlement that was reached Oct. 19. The

studs were used in the custom-built Manhattan Beach home the family

lived in for about two years beginning in 1999.

Kellen, now 5, functions as a 1 1/2-year-old and needs 24-hour care.

P. Boucher, president of the Consumer Attorneys Association

of Los Angeles, said the Oct. 19 settlement was the largest in the

country for a mold case involving a single-family home. None the

defendants admitted liability.

The majority of the settlement in the California case was designed

to cover expenses of the son, who doctors said suffered brain damage

from exposure to mold.

In the Dentlers' case, Judge Kathleen Hamilton, of the 359th state

District Court, ruled the family could not mention that flooding had

caused mold in the house and their medical records were not

admissible during the trial.

" We could not mention insurance, " Dentler said. " The trial

was limited to talking about one flood event; we couldn't even

mention mold.

" She (Hamilton) took away so much of our case, we couldn't win. "

The case was appealed once in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals

after being bumped from the Ninth Circuit Court, which had too many

cases at the time. The Dentlers prevailed based on an affidavit in

which the seller said they didn't word their own home disclosure,

Dentler said.

" Hamilton ruled that document was inadmissible, " he said.

The rules in Texas prevent the type of settlement reached in

California from happening here. The Dentlers at the most would have

been entitled to $250,000 in pain and suffering costs and actual

costs. Their last petition was actually for $750,000, which included

$110,000 for contents, $240,000 to rebuild the house, $70,000 to

replace losses from paying two mortgages at once because the family

moved due to mold damage and $330,000 for attorney fees.

Insurance companies eventually paid $70,000 for damages, which was a

quarter of what was requested, and $7,000 of that went to a public

adjuster, Peggy Dentler said.

The medical community is divided over the potential health damage

that can be caused by mold.

The Centers for Disease Control doesn't utilize the term toxic mold

in documents and only officially states that some molds can be toxic

to some people.

" These case reports are rare, and a casual link between the presence

of toxic mold and these conditions has not been proven, " according

to the CDC Web site.

Divergent medical opinions don't provide solace to the Dentlers, who

are convinced 4-year-old Hope has been affected by her exposure to

mold.

" She's had several allergies since she was born, " Peggy Dentler said.

" She's allergic to everything. She has to take two pills a day just

to have allergic reaction, " Dentler said. " No one else in my

family is like that. "

The Dentlers' attorney is still considering another appeal in the

Ninth Circuit court, Dentler said. " But we've run out of

money. "

Reports from ABC News contributed to this story.

Burton Speakman can be reached at bspeakman@....

©Houston Community Newspapers Online 2005