Builders, insurers worry about mold

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Tue, May. 14, 2002

Loose Change | Builders, insurers worry about mold

By ph N. DiStefano

Inquirer Staff Writer

With homeowners in Texas and California complaining they've been sickened by

slimy stuff growing in their basements and under their siding, builders and

their insurers worry that mold-related lawsuits will soon proliferate like,

well, mold.

The modern wave of mold litigation dates to 1995, when Philadelphia's

ill-fated Reliance Insurance Co. was ordered to pay $40 million (plus $10

million for personal injuries) for environmental damage to a Florida

courthouse.

More recently, juries in Texas, California and Louisiana have awarded

multimillion-dollar judgments to individual homeowners and condo buyers.

" If mold is supposedly everywhere, why can't it rival asbestos in terms of

the number of claims? " Philadelphia lawyer Randy J. Maniloff asked in last

week's Mealey's Litigation Reporter, a trade publication.

Because asbestos is stronger and more predictable than mold, making it

easier to file mass asbestos claims, argued Maniloff, a lawyer for

Philadelphia-based Christie, Pabarue, Mortensen & Young, which typically

defends insurers.

" Mold does not lend itself to hundreds of thousands of plaintiffs suing

dozens of defendants through the use of form complaints [and] cookie-cutter

discovery, " Maniloff said.

Other differences: Asbestos may linger in the body for years, delaying

claims, but " the nature of mold injuries... does not likely lend itself to

long trigger periods. "

Slave insurance in Pa.?

Pennsylvania State Rep. Louise Bishop (D., Phila.) is asking

colleagues to support a bill that requires " insurance companies that do

business in the commonwealth to divulge any connection they may have had to

the slave trade. "

The bill is modeled on a California law supported by slavery researchers and

adherents of the reparations movement, which seeks compensation for the

descendants of slaves from corporations and government agencies whose

predecessors profited from slavery.

Bishop is considering a plan to expand the bill " to include shipping

records, " aide Oliver said.