Woman sues Slack Group for mobile home problems

CHARLESTON – A woman is suing Slack Group, LLC after she claims her mobile home trailer had standing water problems that caused her children to be injured.

Audrey Short purchased a mobile home trailer from the defendant’s predecessor in 2007 and moved into the trailer with her son, Logun DeBord, and later, after her birth, her daughter Addisun DeBord also lived there, according to a complaint filed Nov. 16 in Kanawha Circuit Court.

Short claims Slack Group is the owner of the mobile home park.

In 2008, Short began to notice standing water collecting against the rear wall of the trailer, which was causing an infestation of mosquitoes and the development of mold, which was visible on the rear wall of the trailer, according to the suit.

Short claims she was not permitted to correct the problem herself without permission of the defendant’s predecessor under the terms of the Airport Mobile Home Court Rental Guidelines and she requested corrective action by means of excavation and whatever other means necessary at that time.

The defendant’s predecessor did not correct the problems until Short threatened legal action, according to the suit, and the defendant’s predecessor finally employed the services of a backhoe in an attempt to eliminate the standing water problem, but the backhoe, instead, caused further damage to the property without correcting the problem.

Short claims in 2009 she observed a dead tree that was endangering her trailer and a utility outbuilding and requested the tree’s removal from the property for the protection of the property, as well as herself and her children.

In 2011 the tree fell and destroyed the utility building and all of its contents, according to the suit.

Short claims as a result of the standing water problem, the mold continued to worsen and caused her son to develop severe asthma due to his exposure to the black mold conditions.

After the defendant refused to fix the problems with the mobile home, Short moved from the trailer to another trailer in the same mobile home park in April, according to the suit.

Short is seeking compensatory damages. She is being represented by Walton S. Shepherd III.

The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey.

Kanawha Circuit Court case number: 12-C-2304