Just Well Law, PLLC: Mold Infestation at Ohio State University Dormitory Sickens Students

Lawsuit alleges University knew students were in 'toxic time bomb'

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Jan. 13, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- A new state-court lawsuit alleges dozens of first-year Ohio State University students were sickened by a dormitory mold-infestation known to but not disclosed by the university, according to the legal team for the students and their families.

The lawsuit was brought by more than 50 students that moved into the premium "Rate 1" Lawrence Tower in August 2024 and their parents. "The excitement of the first semester of college – new school, new friends, and academic aspirations – was soon replaced by consistent coughs, brain fog, and other respiratory symptoms they could not easily shake," according to the lawsuit.

During the fall 2024 semester, the lawsuit asserts, "Mushrooms began growing out of Lawrence Tower walls, and the mold issues became undeniable. Students began to suspect what was making them sick: unsafe air. Once the wallpaper began separating from walls to reveal black, yellow, and even purple mold." Mold testing by the students and their parents independently confirmed the presence of mold in November 2024.

The university is accused of negligence, implied warranty of habitability, nuisance, and fraud. The students are making health and property claims. Their parents are making property claims.

The students and parents are represented by Jedidiah I. Bressman and David A. Bressman of Bressman Law, of Dublin, Ohio, and Kristina S. Baehr of Just Well Law, PLLC, of Austin, Texas.

Jedidiah I. Bressman, of Bressman Law, said, "Ohio State students have the right to expect safe air in their school dorms, and their parents have the right to expect that they will be safe at school. And yet the university subjected students to a dorm that it knew, or should have known, was sickening and mold-infested. The widespread mold in Lawrence Tower was no secret – except for the families that trusted the university."

Kristina S. Baehr, of Just Well Law, PLLC, said, "As the semester began, neither the students nor their parents knew they were entering and unloading their personal belongings into a toxic time bomb. The lawsuit will show who at Ohio State knew about the mold problems – and for how long. Rather than acknowledge the problem, Ohio State looked at sick students and told them that they couldn't be sick. According to Ohio State, there simply wasn't enough mold to make anyone sick – notwithstanding extreme levels of Stachybotrys (black mold) and the black and blue visible fungus lining the wallpaper. The evidence will show a long-term systematic failure by university officials entrusted to keep students safe."

According to the lawsuit, Ohio State first blamed the mold infestation on a singular plumbing leak and said that only 40 rooms were affected. Then, the University began to move students out of the building, still claiming it was safe. Yet, the lawsuit asserts, when the university acquired the former hotel property in 2009, renovations that should have taken two years were completed in as few as two months. The renovations included little or no remediation of known mold and asbestos issues at the property.

The case is Jack Barga, et al. v. The Ohio State University in the Court of Claims in Columbus, Ohio which includes claims of negligence, implied warranty of habitability, nuisance, and fraud. A concurrent lawsuit was filed in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas for the Ohio Consumer Sales Practice Act claims.

Media Contact: Erin Powers, Powers MediaWorks LLC, for Bressman Law, and Just Well Law, PLLC, 281.703.6000, [email protected].

SOURCE Just Well Law, PLLC