Insurers could be left out in the mold

It's in our homes. It's in our offices. Mold is everywhere.

Most people pay little attention to it, but insurers across the nation are watching it closely.

In Texas, a court awarded a woman $32 million in actual and extracontractual damages for mold in her 22-bedroom mansion. A California homeowner was awarded $18.5 million for moldrelated damages.

Numbers like these are raising concerns within the insurance industry, which is still feeling the sting from asbestos liability claims. Claim payments for asbestos totaled $26.7 billion between 1991 and 1999, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

In addition to insurance companies, toxic-mold liability …