Family poisoned by swanky NYC's apartment's hidden mold, with child covered in painful pus-filled blotches: lawsuit
British-born photographer Jae Donnelly said he first raised concerns about a possible mold infestation in his two-bedroom apartment in the luxe Sessanta high-rise on West 60th Street in January 2024 — but management refused to make repairs to stop the spores from spreading, according to the suit.
'I've never been around people like this in my life that showed total disregard for the health of my family, and it was appalling and really upsetting,' Donnelly told The Post last week. 'And my children were just expected to put up with all of this. It was heartbreaking.'
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The toxic mold was exposed in the building, where some rents top $5,000, when a handyman came to fix a leak in January 2024, Donnelly said. Workers cut out and replaced a section of wall and flooring but never did a proper mold test despite his protests, he said.
7
Jae Donnelly
The complaint, filed last month in Manhattan Supreme Court, also accused Align Management of not ensuring the leak was properly fixed, leading to mold to spread throughout the family's home.
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The building owners and management 'were negligent and reckless causing the Plaintiffs to sustain serious personal injuries as a result of prolonged exposure to mold,' the lawsuit said.
'We were treated so despicably,' said Donnelly, whose work has appeared in The Post.
Unwittingly living in a toxic environment, Donnelly said he, his Julliard-trained cellist wife and their two young children, now ages 10 and 2, suffered from a myriad of inexplicable health issues, including allergies, chest pains, vertigo and fatigue so intense that it often kept their school-aged daughter home.
And his then-infant son's buttocks and genitalia were covered in pustules, pus-filled patches of bumps on his skin that left him screaming, he said.
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Sessanta's management company did not reply to a message left with their corporate office.
The 27-story high-rise – where a 471-square-foot studio is currently listed at $3,895 a month and includes luxurious touches like walnut floors, maple cabinets and Italian porcelain bathroom tiles – was built in 2007.
7 Jae Donnelly alleged he, his wife and their two young children were sickened by mold caused by a leak in their Upper West Side apartment.
Courtesy of Jae Donnelly
Yet another leak prompted workers to return to the apartment 11 months later, when they at first blamed a drippy dishwasher until they pulled the family couch away from the wall, according to Donnelly.
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That's when they found 'mold bubbling away on the surface of the wall and all down the back of the couch,' Donnelly said, who later tossed the sofa entirely.
Donnelly said mold had spread throughout their walls, floors and all over the kitchen — including the cabinets where they kept their cookware.
7 Black mold had spread all over the Donnellys' apartment, including under the sink.
Jae Donnelly
Huge sections of sheetrock were cut out of the walls, but no measures were taken to block the dust and mold from covering the apartment, Donnelly recalled.
'This was at the height of my wife breastfeeding,' he said. 'They brought in a fan to try and dry it, and that blew all the sheetrock dust and insulation fibers everywhere in the apartment — all over my son's milk sterilization stuff.'
The building's own mold assessor deemed the problem solved, Donnelly alleged.
7 Mold was found growing along the walls behind the family's couch.
Jae Donnelly
'They fought me on everything,' said the dad of two, who called a lawyer and brought in another inspector.
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His own testing found huge elevations of mold, including toxic Stachybotrys and Chaetomium spores, he said. Weeks later, maintenance workers cut a hole in the apartment wall where Donnelly said his newly purchased moisture meter was detecting water.
Once they looked in the hole, the workers got very hushed, Donnelly recalled.
7 Workers cut out dry wall in the apartment but didn't protect the family's belongings, allowing toxic dust to spread everywhere, Donnelly alleged.
Jae Donnelly
'In Spanish, they quietly spoke to each other,' he said, 'and I took it upon myself to put my hand in the hole and I grabbed the insulation.
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'And it was soaking wet.'
Donnelly said he grew furious.
'They had not fixed it properly again. I exclaimed to all of them: 'You are playing with my children's lives.''
7 Donnelly said toxic dust was allowed to spread all over their home, including on their piano.
Jae Donnelly
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Donnelly, his wife and their eldest child underwent a blood test that revealed high levels of mycotoxins – including the highly potent satratoxin, according to records reviewed by The Post. Their doctor said their 2-year-old son, who was too young to be tested, was also likely sickened with mold because mycotoxins can be passed on through breastmilk, Donnelly said.
'Unfortunately, for Jae and his family, they are suffering as a result of their landlord's failure to properly remedy the building leak when they were first notified in January of 2024,' said their attorney, Eric Malinowski.
7 Mold spread into the walls and flooring.
Jae Donnelly
'The fact that the leak reoccurred and mold developed in the same area of their apartment 11 months later is proof that the building and their management company failed to properly address the situation.'
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The ordeal forced Donnelly, who called New York City his home for two decades, and his family to move out in May – and back to his native UK.
'Life was rosy before this happened,' he said. 'The sun was shining, and we didn't expect it to rain.'
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