Previous Owner’s Suicide Is the Basis for Homeowners’ Lawsuit

They had been told that a prior owner had killed himself in the backyard, but Troy and Maysoun Fletcher did their best to forget about it when they moved into their Mission Viejo home.

It wasn’t until a month later, when a mold inspector poking through the garage stepped into dried blood and what appeared to be human tissue near the water heater, that the couple realized there was a lot they didn’t know about their first house.

The Fletchers feared that every time they turned on the heater or air conditioner, toxins were being spread through the house. “It was beyond disgusting,” said Maysoun Fletcher, 29.

The Orange County couple have since filed suit, claiming they were not told that a previous occupant had killed himself in the attached garage and that the decaying tissue had spread toxic mold throughout the house, which was built in 1981.

In addition to suing the company that had been hired to clean up after the suicide, the couple is suing the widowed prior owner, her real estate agent and the company that conducted the pre-purchase home inspection.

The Fletchers said they were deceived when they were informed that the suicide took place outside. Had they known it happened in the garage, Maysoun Fletcher said, they would not have purchased the property.

The Fletchers are seeking an undetermined amount in damages for emotional distress and negligence. The couple said they and their daughter have suffered breathing difficulties since moving into the house, but that is not among the charges in the lawsuit.

Although one expert confirmed the couple’s theory that such organic matter left to fester can cause harmful mold, others familiar with property law said that proving any case involving mold would be difficult.

California property law says that a death on a property doesn’t need to be mentioned if it happened more than three years before a sale, unless the circumstances might affect the purchase decision. Whether a death matters is subjective, so most agents try to avoid the problem by disclosing everything and letting the buyers decide for themselves.

But once a suicide is disclosed, said California Assn. of Realtors general counsel June Barlow, it is up to the buyer to explore the circumstances, including the cleanup. Barlow said she has never heard of a poorly cleaned suicide scene causing mold, but she added that case law dealing with property mold is still developing.

The couple said they grew uneasy two weeks after they moved in Dec. 30, 2003, when a neighbor who welcomed them with a plate of cookies told them that the suicide happened in the garage.

Fletcher, her husband and their 20-month-old daughter still live in the 2,512-square-foot, four-bedroom house. They can’t afford another home, they said, although they would like to leave.

In court documents and interviews, the defendants deny the claims. Also, the agent has sued the widow, alleging that she lied about the location of her husband’s death on April 24, 2003.

“My client made no misrepresentations whatsoever regarding the sale of the property,” said Michelle A. Hancock, lawyer for real estate agent Shawna Rogalla. “She should not be part of this lawsuit.”

Both Hancock and the lawyer for the widow, Teresa Carpenter, say the Fletchers have failed to prove their claims.

“The plaintiff has come up with a ridiculous theory, that the mold resulted because of a bad cleanup,” said Carpenter’s lawyer, Kevin McLean.

Crime-scene cleanup experts disagree, saying that toxic mold is one of the main dangers of shoddy service. A gunshot’s energy can propel matter into different rooms and closed cabinets, making thorough cleanup essential, said Neil Smither, owner and founder of Orinda-based Crime Scene Cleaners Inc., considered the country’s largest such company.

“Mold is always a big concern,” Smither said. He said his workers must complete several hours of training on mold spores, given by a biologist.

The Fletchers said they had been looking at houses for almost a year when they found a gem just off Oso Parkway. It had a grand entry with an overlook from a second-floor office, a spacious kitchen ideal for holiday cooking and a big backyard perfect for the herbs and fruit trees Maysoun’s father loved to plant.

They offered the full asking price -- $629,900 -- and within two months were deep in escrow. A few days after their inspector finished his report, which did not list mold, they got a late-night call from their agent telling them the prior owner’s husband had shot himself in the backyard.

“I didn’t want the house anymore,” Maysoun Fletcher said.

But after looking at more houses, she and her husband agreed they would buy the one in Mission Viejo. But when the neighbor told them that Michael Carpenter had killed himself in the garage, just under what was now the baby’s bedroom, their mood soured.

Still, the couple didn’t look in the garage, and it wasn’t until a few weeks later when Maysoun -- a lawyer who stopped practicing when her baby was born -- attended a legal education seminar on toxic mold that things started to click. By then, she said, baby Yasmeen had bronchitis and needed an inhaler.

A worker from a mold-removal company came out two days later and established that toxic mold was present in the house, the suit contends. A month after they moved in, the Fletchers moved back out for two months while drywall was replaced, the furnace taken apart and cleaned and the entire downstairs repainted.