LOS ANGELES, CA — Ed McMahon, longtime sidekick of Johnny Carson on NBC’s “Tonight Show,” is suing his home insurance company for $20 million, claiming that it botched a simple repair on a broken pipe and, as a result, allowed a toxic mold to spread through his house, making his family sick and killing his dog, according to a report from CNN.

In a lawsuit filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, McMahon said he, his wife Pamela, and household staff members have been battling illnesses as a result of exposure to a mold known as stachybotrus chartarum. He also said the family dog, Muffin, died as a result of a mold-induced infection.

The suit names Scottsdale, AZ-based American Equity Insurance Co., a unit of Citigroup Inc., as a plaintiff as well as several Southern California contractors who had been hired to clean up the mold.

McMahon claims that a pipe burst last July in his estate in the Coldwater Canyon section of Los Angeles, causing his den to be flooded. McMahon made a claim under his policy with American Equity, which arranged to clean up the damage caused by the flooding.

Publication date: 04/15/2002