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An Oconee County jury’s $1 award to a young girl and her parents for their loss as a result of a mold-related case against the School District... read two articles about this deplorable situation.....
Attorney rips $1 mold case award Seeks new trial for Oconee family
August 25, 2007, 12:05 a.m. EST
by Carlos Galarza
http://www.upstatetoday.com/news/2007/aug/25/attorney-rips-1-mold-case-award/
(South Carolina)
WALHALLA — An Oconee County jury’s $1 award to a young girl and her parents for their loss as a result of a mold-related case against the School District of Oconee County is being used by their attorney as grounds for a new trial.
Attorney Lawton McIntosh lashed out against the jury’s verdict as “grossly inadequate” in asking trial judge J.C. Nicholson for a new trial in a legal brief filed this week on behalf of Cathy and Karl Lowrey and their daughter, Ashley.
McIntosh said the $1 award “shocks the conscience,” adding that delivering such an amount in light of the evidence “was the result of passion, caprice, prejudice, partiality, corruption or some other improper motive.”
The legal action comes as Judge Cordell Maddox prepares to hear arguments Tuesday for a new trial in another mold case against the School District.
After a weeklong trial in the Lowrey case, which included testimony from school officials, teachers, doctors, and some expert witnesses on videotape who charged about $750 an hour for their time, the jury delivered a split decision in the case. First, the jury found in favor of the School District with regards to premises liability, but then turned around and found in favor of the Lowrey family for their loss of consortium.
Initially, the jury gave the Lowrey family nothing for their loss. However, Judge Nicholson said they had to come up with a dollar amount and sent them back to deliberate. They took about half an hour to come back with $1.
The Lowrey family alleged in their lawsuit that Ashley became sick while attending the mold-infested block building at Keowee Elementary School during the 2003-04 school year.
In asking for a new trial, McIntosh also argued that after finding loss of consortium, the jury’s $1 award “was inadequate, inconsistent and incomplete.” Furthermore, the attorney claims that by implication, the jury’s loss of consortium verdict necessarily concludes that Ashley sustained injury as a result of the School District’s alleged gross negligence.
In Tuesday’s hearing, Judge Maddox will hear a request for a new trial from both the School District’s attorney and the attorney of a family that sought damages for their daughter’s mold-related respiratory illnesses.
In that trial held in June, the jury found the School District was grossly negligent, but decided not to award Jordan Johnson or her parents, Robert and Jeanne Johnson, any money.
Attorneys for both sides claim the jury’s decision in June did not make sense.
http://www.independentmail.com/news/2007/aug/28/keowee-school-buildings-mold-easier-clean-court-ca/
Keowee school building's mold easier to clean up than court cases
By David Williams
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
More than three years ago, it took the School District of Oconee County about nine months and a little more than $100,000 to completely renovate a four-room building on the Keowee Elementary School campus.
Since that block building was cleaned of mold and returned to service as classrooms in 2004, three lawsuits filed by families of children who were served in the building before Thanksgiving 2003 have worked their way through the courts. The cases could continue showing up on the court calendar in 2008.
After two trials, the only monetary award two Oconee County juries have awarded is $1 to Karl and Cathy Lowery, whose daughter Ashley attended the school.
In another trial, the jury awarded no money to Robert and Jeanne Johnson, whose daughter Jordan was at the school. But the jury did find the school district negligent in its process to clean the building, the oldest building on the Keowee School Road (S.C. 188) campus.
Attorney Tom Barlow of Columbia, representing the Oconee school district, and Jack Read of Greenville, representing the Johnson family, both appealed that jury’s decision, citing the inconsistencies.
Circuit Judge Cordell Maddox said he would take the two attorneys’ arguments under consideration and rule today. An ample number of work orders were filed even before the Thanksgiving school holiday in 2003, showing the school district was working on the building, Mr. Barlow said.
“Things that needed to be fixed were being addressed at relevant times,” Mr. Barlow said. “Even in the summer before the girl entered the building.”
Mr. Barlow has represented the school district in both the Johnson and Lowery cases.
Mr. Read said a new trial was warranted in the Johnson case because of the inconsistency in the verdict.
“This little girl got sick, was treated for mold-related illness and got better,” Mr. Read said.
Mr. Read is also representing Edward and Deborah Stewart and their son Storm in a third case similar to the Johnson case and the Lowery case.
The Stewart case does not have a court date. The earliest it could begin would be in December or very early 2008.
Meanwhile, Anderson attorney Lawton McIntosh, who represents the Lowery family, also has filed a motion for a new trial, calling the $1 award inadequate. No hearing date to rule on Mr. McIntosh’s motion has been scheduled.
Burke Royster, now deputy superintendent of operations for Greenville County Schools, was assistant superintendent in Oconee County in 2003 and oversaw the renovation of the building at Keowee Elementary.
“Every thing a reasonable person would have done in those circumstances and even beyond that was done,” Mr. Royster said. “The day we become aware, we moved the students out, and they did not come back.”
Mr. Royster has testified during both the Johnson and Lowery cases.
The mold situation forced about 45 students into the main building and did not affect attendance at the school in the Keowee-Ebenezer community.
Through the end of 2003, Keowee Elementary School ranked third in attendance among the 11 elementary schools in Oconee County. Keowee Elementary had an attendance rate of 97.85 percent.
The block building remained closed to students while extensive renovation continued through the end of the 2003-04 school year. The building was opened to students for the 2004-2005 school year. No other lawsuits have been filed regarding the mold situation in 2003.
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