From Bad to Worse
(More to read about the lawsuit...)
http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2003-03-21/150675/
Ballard's legal odyssey began in mid-1998, when she had a bathroom plumbing leak repaired. According to the court record, shortly after the repair, her home's hardwood floors began buckling. Ballard's floor contractor, Richard Roberts, first advised her to remove several of the boards to allow the floor to dry out. But the problem persisted, and in December 1998, Roberts advised Ballard to contact her insurer, since the floor damage appeared to be "extensive" and moisture readings suggested it was not drying out. Ballard filed a claim with Farmers in mid-December.
Ballard's version of the following events was upheld in court, but remains under dispute by the insurance company.
According to Ballard's legal pleadings, a Farmers claims adjuster initially diagnosed the problem as "slab settling" -- not covered by Ballard's homeowner's policy -- and the company tested her plumbing for leaks, at first concluding there were none. A month later, a Farmer's engineer and a second adjuster told Ballard that the damages had in fact been caused by two separate water leaks, but added that there were no
active leaks in the house. According to Ballard, Roberts told the adjuster he was increasingly concerned about the potential for mold growth if the hardwoods and sub-flooring were not removed.
Ballard asked Farmers for permission to remove the flooring, as a temporary repair and to mitigate the damages. Farmers rejected that request, directing instead that she remove only those boards with the most severe damage and cover the sub-flooring with plywood and carpet remnants while the claim investigation proceeded. "The policies say that the homeowner has the duty to mitigate damages. On the other [hand], it says that the homeowner must cooperate and agree to what the insurance company wants to do," recalls Ballard. "When I filed the claim ... Farmers came out to adjust and said, you need to fix this. But then they say, we're not finished with our investigation and if you make repairs you'll lose your coverage. This is the dumb-ass theory of adjusting."
Ballard examines some of the damage done to her home by mold.
Photo By Jana Birchum
On Feb. 24, 1999 -- more than two months after Ballard's initial claim -- Farmers offered to settle, for $108,000. Unfortunately, that sum was no longer sufficient to repair the floors -- not to mention the cracked windows, door frames, stairs, and buckling walls that had occurred in the meantime, while the company's investigation was in progress. "If they had allowed me to pull up the floor," Ballard says now, "my house would not be sitting there abandoned today."
And it didn't end with the damage to the house. While Farmers was still investigating, Ballard, her husband Ron Allison, and their son Reese each began experiencing flu-like symptoms, and shortly thereafter, the family discovered black mold growing on the walls. Ballard hired air quality experts, who determined the house was contaminated with various fungi, including the toxic mold
Stachybotrys. Ballard and the air quality analysts expressed to Farmers their concerns about the safety of the house. The insurer continued to investigate.
"So now I've got a 12,000-square-foot home," Ballard recalls, "with 10,000 square feet of
Stachybotrys."
In June 2000, Ballard and her family finally moved out of the house. Allison, 36,has since been diagnosed with "toxic encephalopathy," Ballard says -- a form of brain damage, apparently due to mycotoxin poisoning -- presumably emitted by the
Stachybotrys. Formerly a financial adviser, he has been unable to work, suffers from seizures, and is now enrolled at Austin Community College, Ballard says, trying to "retrain" himself to think properly. His professors "are pretty understanding."
Ultimately, just before the family was forced from the home, an appraiser retained by Farmers conceded that the damage to Ballard's home was far greater than the company had acknowledged. The appraiser concluded that the house, to be properly remediated, would likely have to be torn down and rebuilt. Since all work has been suspended during the legal actions, the structure continues to deteriorate, and is now a crumbling ruin.