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Lead Ruling Overturned In Companies' Favor

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The Associated Press

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 2, 2008

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Rhode Island's Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned a first-in-the-nation jury verdict that found three former lead paint companies responsible for creating a public nuisance, rejecting a closely watched case that had been seen as a bellwether for potential lawsuits across the country.

The 4-0 decision ends the nearly decade-long court fight and spares the companies from potentially billions in cleanup costs for thousands of contaminated homes.

Rhode Island was the first state to successfully sue former makers of lead pigment and paint, which can cause learning disabilities, brain damage and other health problems in children. A jury in 2006 found Sherwin-Williams Co., NL Industries and Millennium Holdings LLC liable for creating a public nuisance by making a toxic product.

The state had proposed that the companies spend $2.4 billion inspecting and cleaning hundreds of thousands of Rhode Island homes thought to contain lead paint.

The ruling was immediately denounced by groups supporting punitive action against paint companies.
State Attorney General Patrick Lynch said: "We fought this and we're essentially at the end. Our fight now is: What do we do ... to deal with the problem the lead companies have escaped from?"

The court, however, said the state's lawsuit should have been dismissed at the outset. It said that although lead paint may be a public health problem, it was not the companies' responsibility to clean it up because they, unlike landlords and homeowners, had no control over how the paint was used or if it was used in properties where children were poisoned.

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