Business Insurance: Toxic mold comp suit can go forward, court rules

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Business Insurance

Americas/Europe

October 16, 2006

_Toxic mold comp suit can go forward, court rules_

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by _o Ceniceros_ (mailto:rceniceros@...)

Posted on Oct. 16, 2006 2:42 PM CST

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SAN FRANCISCO—An injured employee has been allowed to proceed with a lawsuit

alleging that Costco Wholesale Corp. fraudulently concealed information about

the presence of toxic mold on its property, a California appeals court has

ruled.

The plaintiff in Bernadou vs. Costco Wholesale Corp. found water

leaking into her office window in Livermore, Calif., beginning in 1995. Ms.

Bernadou complained to Costco for years about the leak that wet her office

carpet

each winter, court records show.

In 2003, her doctor diagnosed her with asthma, possibly related to the

flooding at her work site, and she filed a workers compensation claim.

Ms. Bernadou later filed the current suit containing several allegations,

including that Costco provided her doctor with a report issued by an

environmental testing company that Costco retained, but withheld five of the

report’s

eight pages. She ultimately obtained the entire report and alleged in her suit

that Costco knew of toxic mold in the workplace prior to her filing her

workers comp claim.

A trial court dismissed other defendants including Costco from the lawsuit

after finding several causes of action in the suit were barred by workers

compensation exclusivity, among other shortcomings.

However, California’s 1st District Court of Appeals disagreed. The San

Francisco-based court ruled last Thursday that Ms. Bernadou’s complaint

adequately

met requirements necessary to establish an exception to workers’

compensation exclusivity, which prevents workers from suing their employers.