Latest news with #blackmold
Yahoo
10-08-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
KCSO Deputy Gets Help with Cancer and Home Repairs
Kern County Sheriff's Deputy Jasmine Francisco is currently battling cancer while also facing unexpected financial hardship after discovering black mold in the home she had just purchased for her daughters. Solve the daily Crossword
Daily Mail
05-07-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
We're suing our five-star hotel after our nightmare Vegas vacation left us covered in hideous rashes
What started as a dreamy getaway to Las Vegas spiraled into a nightmare for a Georgia couple, who came home not just with memories - but with full body rashes allegedly caused by mold lurking in their five-star hotel, according to a recently filed complaint. In a lawsuit obtained by Daily Mail, it is revealed that earlier this year, Mark and Leilani Nickerson arrived at the opulent Conrad Las Vegas - one of the crown jewels of Resorts World and Hilton - expecting nothing short of a luxurious, high-end experience. But within days, according to the complaint, both began to suffer from an unsettling array of symptoms - persistent headaches, flu-like fatigue and relentless irritation - that eerily echoed the effects of toxic exposure. It wasn't until the couple later passed by their room that they witnessed a shocking sight - hotel staff allegedly peeling back the carpet to reveal a sprawling expanse of black mold contaminating the floor, the complaint reads. Now, the Nickersons have taken legal action against the resort and Hilton Worldwide, claiming that black mold exposure during their stay left them ill and facing a growing burden of medical expenses, according to the lawsuit obtained by Daily Mail. 'Our clients filed this lawsuit because they expected Resorts World/Hilton to be a high-end luxury resort, with impeccable customer service,' Las Vegas attorney Neal Hyman, who filed the complaint on behalf of the couple, told Daily Mail. 'This is unacceptable. Our clients suffered a great deal of pain/discomfort from this, and Mr Nickerson had a painful rash on his entire body,' he added. 'The Nickersons want to make sure this does not happen to others.' What began as a routine check-in on January 23 quickly unraveled, as the Nickersons settled into 'Room 1' - the room identified at the center of the lawsuit - after arriving from Georgia. After just one night in the hotel, and only two days into their stay, Mark allegedly began noticing a rash rapidly spreading across his entire body. Worried, he sought urgent care, suspecting the rash might be caused by body wash or bed bugs. Mark promptly alerted both the Conrad Hotel and Resorts World about the growing problem, while meticulously documenting his spreading rash with photos - hoping to catch it before it worsened, the complaint reads. The couple subsequently filed an incident report, which led to their relocation to a different room - identified as 'Room 2' in the court documents. But it wasn't long before Leilani also began feeling unwell, and from that moment on, the couple was plagued by a relentless barrage of debilitating, flu-like symptoms, the complaint reads. With a background in construction, Mark quickly began piecing together what the complaint says was the truth - this wasn't a simple allergic reaction to hotel soap, but potentially something far more serious: sickness caused by mold exposure. Still, the exact cause remained uncertain, despite Mark being highly susceptible to infections and complications from mold exposure. Their trip only took a darker turn, according to the complaint, when they passed by their old room - Room 1 - with the door wide open and the fan eerily humming inside. Inside the very room they had stayed in just hours earlier, the wall had allegedly been cut open and the carpet pulled back, revealing 'black mold all over the place, the complaint says - a presence described in the court docs as consistent with hazardous mold. While the Nickersons recorded video evidence of the alleged mold, the wet carpet and the gaping hole cut into the wall, a hotel employee appeared unfazed - allegedly treating the scene as if it were just routine maintenance, the complaint says. 'The maintenance person confirmed it was mold/water intrusion, and he said it happens a lot due to the way the showers were constructed/designed,' the lawsuit alleged. Before fully grasping what they said was the severity of their situation, the couple requested a waiver of hotel resort fees, citing their inability to use the hotel's amenities due to illness. But the resort denied their request, offering to waive only a few minor fees at most, according to the court docs. The resort allegedly attempted to get the Nickersons to sign a waiver relinquishing all their rights and claims - a legally binding document that forces one party to voluntarily forfeit any future claims without holding the other liable, according to the complaint. However, instead of signing the waiver, the couple retained legal counsel. After the resort did not respond to their pre-litigation demand, their attorney swiftly filed a lawsuit. The lawsuit detailed the extent of the alleged damage caused, asserting that both Mark and Leilani 'sustained personal, bodily, emotional and mental injuries' as a result of their stay. Among the injuries cited in the court docs were numerous doctor visits, ongoing medical evaluations, economic hardship, loss of enjoyment of life and persistent pain - resulting in mounting medical bills and the need for future treatment, testing and medications. 'As a result of being exposed to water intrusion, mold and toxins, [the couple] sustained injuries to their body and shock and injury to their nervous system and person,' the lawsuit alleged. 'All of which caused and will continue to cause them physical pain/suffering and emotional pain/suffering,' it continued. Both Mark and Leilani 'are self-employed business owners, and have lost work/earnings as a result to their exposure to mold/toxins and resulting injuries,' according to the complaint. The court filing further alleged that the resort did not disclose 'concealed' defects to their guests and neglected to exercise due diligence in inspecting hotel rooms and supervising maintenance staff. As a result, the Nickersons are seeking both general and special damages exceeding $15,000, including compensation for past and future medical treatment, economic losses, resulting damage, attorney's fees, expert costs and other necessary expenses, according to the suit. 'The conduct constitutes intentional, knowing, willful, oppressive, reckless and malicious acts/omissions by [the resort], such as to constitute conduct and oppression, fraud, malice and such conduct legally entitling [the Nickersons] to recover an award of punitive damages,' the lawsuit read.
New York Times
18-06-2025
- Health
- New York Times
The House Next Door Has Black Mold. Do I Tell Potential Tenants?
My wife and I live in a neighborhood of single-family homes, most of which are owner-occupied. The home next door, however, is rented out by an absentee landlord. We became friendly with the previous tenants, who moved out very abruptly a couple of weeks ago. We learned from them that the house is infested with black mold, as identified by a professional testing company, and they shared the results with us. The mold issue was serious enough to cause health issues for the previous tenants. To our knowledge, the landlord has done nothing to mitigate this issue, and now he has listed the house for rent again. Our concern is that we've seen families with small children looking at the house. We believe that we might be in legal jeopardy if we were to inform prospective tenants about the mold issue, but what is our moral obligation? — Name Withheld From the Ethicist: In the late 1990s, Stachybotrys chartarum — sometimes dubbed 'toxic black mold' — became the subject of national alarm, with news stories linking it to devastating health effects. Much of that panic was later walked back after scientific review. Still, people with allergies can experience a stuffy or runny nose and the like from mold exposure, while for people with asthma, compromised immune systems or simply bad luck, mold exposure can be genuinely harmful. In children, mold exposure has been associated with an increased risk of developing asthma. In every state, a landlord implicitly promises that a rental property is habitable. What counts as 'habitable' varies by jurisdiction, but a serious mold problem most likely violates that standard. If the previous tenants shared their testing results with you, try to get a copy, if you haven't already. You'll want to satisfy to yourself, too, that the company doing the mold inspection is on the up-and-up; notoriously, there can be a conflict of interest when the people doing the inspections are also in the remediation business. ('In most cases, if visible mold growth is present, sampling is unnecessary,' the E.P.A. advises, while the C.D.C. flatly says that it 'does not recommend mold testing,' noting that 'there are no set standards for what is and what is not an acceptable quantity of different kinds of mold in a home.') Assuming the problem has been correctly identified, you might write the landlord, asking whether the issue has been addressed, and sharing your health concerns. If you're convinced that the danger remains, you could share the documentation with the agent listing this rental property. Realtors have their own ethical and legal obligations: If they believe the home is uninhabitable, they can't simply let tenants assume the risk. And they're unlikely to want to expose themselves to legal jeopardy for concealing a defect. (Disclosing facts shouldn't expose you to legal jeopardy, but that's a question for a lawyer.) You're not under a moral obligation to act, and you wouldn't be wrong to stay out of it. But this is the kind of gesture that, when well-informed, can make the world a little better. If a child were to suffer because no one spoke up, you might wish you had said something. If you were the one about to move in, you would want to know. A decent society depends, in part, on people who choose to help when they don't strictly have to. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
