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Mold problem refuses to clear up
By Greg Thomas
The Times-Picayune
November 26, 2002
As much as we shake our heads, as much as we snicker, as much as we wag our
cynical tongues, this mold stuff is for real.
The local anecdotes are piling up too high to be ignored. The owner of a local
home calls after reading a story about the mold exclusion in homeowner insurance
policies written in Louisiana. The damage to his 3-year-old mansion is $300,000.
He wants pictures taken, he wants his insurance agent strung from a light pole
-- in front of his house would be fine -- and he wants his builder's first-born
child indentured for life.
Then he wants to retract everything because his attorney says it will hurt his
chances of settling.
Acting Louisiana Insurance Commissioner J. Robert Wooley took one national
insurance carrier to task this week for mailing "misleading" correspondence to
its 280,000 policy holders in the state. State Farm's mailing reminded customers
that their polices exclude damage from mold. It does, but that doesn't mean an
insurance carrier won't have to pay to get rid of it, Wooley insists.
A sudden and accidental event that triggers water damage that results in toxic
black mold
problem would be covered. The insurance companies aren't too sure, and they'll hobnob
with Wooley sometime this month to sort all that out.
The mold exclusion policy hasn't been tested by the courts yet. A St. Bernard
Parish couple who filed a mold suit against their insurer recently settled their
case for $1.1 million. The insurance company is now suing the builder and the
previous owner who sold the home, alleging the sellers didn't disclose the
problem. Was it lousy siding? A record-setting hail storm that caused the
damage? Lawyers set about creating a 10-inch case file over a year's time before
the insurance company settled.
The settlement actually has nothing to do with mold and everything to do with
the way the insurance company handled the claim. It bungled it, according to
records filed in the case, by initially offering the plaintiffs $197 for the
mold they found on their ceiling.
The settlement avoids a trial and takes care of the damages the St. Bernard
family faced but does little to offer a glimpse into how Louisiana courts will
handle these suits. Will medical testimony that mold causes specific illnesses
be admissible in court? Is mold only a secondary issue to existing liabilities
faced by a buyer, seller, lender or builder?
We'll have to wait until the next lawsuit to find out.
Getting the mall rolling
After years of waiting for a catalyst to bring crowds back to the once-thriving
Lake Forest Plaza Mall in eastern New Orleans, the opening of a 12-screen
stadium-seating cinema Friday is the long-awaited boost developer Gowri Kailas
has been waiting for.
The Grand Theatre is modeled after the hugely successful Palace chain sold to
AMC by Gulf States Theatres earlier this year. Indeed, one of the partners is
George Solomon, the son of cinema guru T.G. "Teddy" Solomon. Other investors are
Ashton Ryan of First Bank and Trust, Joseph Canizaro of Columbus American
Properties, Ronald Burns Sr., owner of Quick Courier Delivery Service, Alden
McDonald of Liberty Bank, and Kailas of Lake Forest Plaza Mall LLC, which owns
the struggling 1.1-million-square-foot mall.
There's a lot at stake in the $9.5 million cinema, which was built on the old
parking lot of the mall's closed Sears store.
Will it be the spark that rekindles the Lake Forest Plaza Mall as the community
center it was nearly 20 years ago?
There's also a sizable chunk of taxpayer money in the $9.5 million theater
project thanks to a low-interest loan from the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development.
As the cinema thrives, as local pundits are certain it will, the momentum to
remake the Plaza mall has never been greater. If this doesn't work, what will? |
