LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – A Clark County jury awarded a younger household in Las Vegas $6.6 million in compensatory and punitive damages, sending an costly message to the condo administration firm sued for failing to repair leaks or forestall the expansion of poisonous mould which made the plaintiffs – a mom and her two kids – chronically in poor health. The administration firm, court docket paperwork present, has requested the court docket to grant it a brand new trial.
Anna Andrews, a mom of two younger kids on the time, moved into an condo at Las Palomas Residences on Boulder Freeway within the east Las Vegas valley from August by way of most of November 2019.
Within the 5 years earlier than the Andrews household moved into constructing 12, the defendant, Anza Administration of Newport Seashore, California, court docket paperwork and displays present, fielded 11 complaints of ceiling and roof leaks there.
Anna Andrews, a mom of two younger kids on the time, moved into an condo at Las Palomas Residences on Boulder Freeway within the east Las Vegas valley from August by way of most of November 2019. (KLAS)
An extra examination of authorized paperwork and courtroom video of the December 2024 trial, the 8 Information Now Investigators additionally found that the constructing’s residents had complained 25 occasions of water leaks and mould inside that exact same constructing.
On November 23, 2019, after a record-breaking quantity of rainfall a number of days prior, Andrews’ ceiling collapsed on her, sending her onto the bottom and sending her teenage daughter to the hospital with an bronchial asthma assault. Andrews’ attorneys argued that Anza administration was guilty for not responding to the myriad complaints over the course of a number of years.
“This is a case about toxic mold poisoning,” Patrick Kang, legal professional for the Andrews household, instructed the jury in his opening assertion. “You’re going to hear allegations that leaks led to toxic mold in the Andrews family unit causing permanent immune injuries.”
When Andrews testified, she mentioned her household battled well being issues throughout their whole keep at Las Palomas. She mentioned her daughter’s bronchial asthma worsened, her son had earaches and complications, and she or he all the time felt sick.
Kang requested Andrews, whereas testifying, how she felt “right now.”
“I’m not feeling good, and I’m trying to keep it together,” Andrews answered. I’ve a headache that I really feel approaching.”
At one other crucial portion of her testimony, Andrews defined extra about her power sickness.
“I just had, like, flu-like symptoms all the time. And, like, I had a cold, and stuffy nose, and sore throat. Diarrhea,” she added.
“Could you just have had the flu?” Kang requested, to which Anza’s legal professional, Elizabeth Skane, objected.
Skane, in her opening assertion to the jury, mentioned Andrews’ lawsuit was “a setup” by which her attorneys had been making an attempt to make use of the ceiling collapse as a technique to money in at Anza’s expense. She mentioned her shopper “addressed immediately” all complaints of leaks in constructing 20, and that “a few roofing leaks does not make a mold claim.”
“Has he given you a reason why millions of dollars is a fair and reasonable price for the injuries Ms. Andrews claims she suffered, even if you believe those injuries are true?” Skane requested the jury, rhetorically.
The jury answered, actually, with its multi-million-dollar verdict. It discovered Anza Administration negligent in inflicting Andrews’ and her kids’s accidents.
Anza, court docket paperwork present, has requested the court docket to grant it a brand new trial. Skanes, in a press release to the 8 Information Now Investigators, wrote, in its entirety:
“Anza Management Company believes that the jury’s verdict is the result of multiple legal errors and is actively challenging the trial result in post-trial motions and an appeal. Anza is a property management company that operates under the terms of its agreements with property owners. The jury’s verdict was the result of a misunderstanding about Anza’s role and authority to conduct repairs at the property at issue, as well as other legal errors that limited Anza’s ability to defend itself in this case. Anza is confident that the errors that led to this result will be corrected in the ongoing litigation. Although your email mentions a motion for sanctions, there is no pending motion for sanctions and Anza Management Company was not sanctioned. Finally, it is our understanding after speaking with the two defense experts who testified at trial that you did not interview or contact our expert witnesses for your report.”
Certainly, the 8 Information Now Investigators interviewed two protection consultants in researching this story.
One, a mould knowledgeable, mentioned that Anza Administration might have executed extra to make sure its tenants’ security.
“Well, first of all, why are you renting a unit that leaks when it rains?” Dale Walsh of Walsh Licensed Consultants in Las Vegas mentioned. “You know that’s, you know, the habitability issue. And so allowing that unit to be leased, not fixing the roof, you know. They [Anza’s attorneys] kept talking about ‘Oh, well, we fix it whenever it leaks.’ It’s, like, that’s not fixed.”
