WMC-TV 5 - Memphis, TNSome attorneys back off black mold lawsuit

Some attorneys back off black mold lawsuit

Almost five years after the discovery and cleanup of black mold at East High School, attorneys behind a class action lawsuit want off the case.
  
This week, 15 Memphis City School parents and students got a letter from attorneys asking the courts to be cut from the case.  Parents claim they're being dropped cold with just three months to regroup.
  
Zorina Bowen says she doesn't know where to turn after attorneys mailed her this letter saying they want off the case. 

"It's been a mess ever since we started this thing back in 2001," she said. 

The former PTA president says black mold discovered at East High School gave her daughter, Jessica, asthma. 

"When I'd walk up the stairs to class, I would notice I'd get short of breath and I stayed out a lot during my seventh and eighth grade year," said the former East High School student. 

Jessica says she never had asthma before then and gave up ice skating because of it.  She's one of several students at East High who say mold made them sick.
    
"I think they're gonna have a very, very difficult time showing that any of the mold that was in east high school had anything to do with the problems that some of these folks complained about," said Memphis City Schools Attorney, Mike Marshall.  He says plaintiffs have until October to make their case.  "The court has set a deadline that if they can't prove their case or at least bring forth evidence to show that there's reason to go forward, then those cases are gonna be dismissed," he said.
    
The attorneys dropping the lawsuit say the parents have a good case against Memphis City Schools and their former cleanup company Aramark-ServiceMaster, but they don't have the money to prove the case. 

"I believe they actually took the case under false pretenses because they led us to believe that they had the resources to fight it and we find out later that they don't," Bowen said.
  
Attorneys say they did everything they could to move the case forward.  Now plaintiffs say they're back to square-one.  Parents and students are now looking for new legal counsel.