In 1995 a homeowner in Potter County hired a plumbing company to put the plumbing into the new house he was building. In the utility room, court records show, the plumbers failed to cap a sanitary tee connected to the washing machine drain pipe. Water the washing machine sent down the drain leaked out of the pipe.
In 2001 the house was tested for mold, the tests came back positive, and the homeowner set about remediating and restoring it. During that work the sheetrock in the utility room came off, and behind it was the uncapped tee.
He testified that he could not go into his house while the work went on, and that he and his wife lived in a hotel for nine months until it was finished. He sued the plumbing company for the cost…