N.Y. Court Reverses Award of Workers’ Compensation Benefits in Mold Exposure Suit

ALBANY, N.Y. –– A New York appellate court has reversed an award of benefits to a former employee of a garbage recycling and energy production facility, saying that aspergillus fungus is common and that the claimant could have been exposed to the mold “anywhere at any time.”

In the Dec. 31 opinion, the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, 3rd Judicial Department, disagreed with a workers’ compensation law judge and a workers’ compensation board’s finding that the claimant’s pulmonary problems were a direct result of exposure to mold at his employment.

Edward Connolly filed the workers’ compensation claim, arguing that …