A Florida jury awarded $5.5 million to a woman who suffered from severe and protracted moisture intrusion and mold/microbial growth in a unit at Ever April Apartments in Pompano Beach, Florida.
In an 18-page lawsuit, filed 4 April 2022, plaintiff Cheryl Jakab, 60, writes of “personal injury and real and personal property damage caused by water intrusion and elevated indoor relative humidity which has caused subsequent proliferation of microbes and microbial chemistries…” in the condo she owned.
These factors, Jakab says, and the court substantially agrees, caused her to suffer adverse health consequences and contributed to the death of her domestic partner, Joao Rodriges.
1996 • Jakab purchased the condominium, Unit #106, at Ever April Apartments, in Pompano Beach, Fl in 1996.
2020 • In or around March 2020, Jakab notices what appears to be mold in her unit.
2020 • As property management is restoring exterior walls, water pours out and into her apartment, likely from ongoing moisture intrusion and rainfall (May).
2020 • Jakab hires an environmental testing professional, whose results show “significant airborne concentrations of harmful mold spores,” in response to which, “Defendant still did nothing [to address.]”
Jakab “routinely and repeatedly” notified property management that the unit she lived in was “being damaged and contaminated” by moisture / mold.
2021 • In 2021, Jakab’s domestic partner, Joao Rodriges, 70, dies of brain cancer “which arose during the [mold, mycotoxin] exposures.”
“The death of Plantiff’s life domestic partner, Joao Rodriges, was caused or substantially caused by negligence of the Defendant as the exposures either caused his brain cancer, or undermined his immune system’s ability to heal and cure.”
Plaintiff Cheryl Jakab and Legal Counsel, April 4, 2022
2022 • On 4 April 2022, Jakab and her legal counsel, The McKee Law Group, and Brill & Rinaldi, sue Ever April Apartments, Inc.
2023 • On 1 May 2023, Florida’s Sun Sentinel and the Insurance Journal report that a South Florida jury had awarded Jakab $5.5M, or $5,523,467, as a result of the lawsuit. The Insurance Journal reports the lawsuit initially sought more than $30 million in damages, though we don’t find the same.
Mold Lawyer
Renowned toxic tort and personal injury attorney, Robert J McKee (The McKee Law Group), secured the $5.5M for a client whose life, property and personal heath were adversely affected by moisture intrusion and mold growth in a Pompano Beach, Fla., condominium she owned and lived in.
A mold-injured client McKee previously represented in the same Florida district, Lynette Jividen, 56, was awarded $48 million by a jury in 2021, after developing CIRS and debilitating illness following her stay in a leased apartment at the Mar Lago Village condominium. That lawsuit was filed in May 2018, and concluded in April 2021.
In June 2021, McKee joined Exposing Mold: The Podcast, for a discussion that anyone dealing with toxic mold or considering filing a “mold lawsuit” would do very well to listen to.
