R.I. high court overturns lead paint verdict

Jack McConnell, a lawyer representing Rhode Island, warned that children would continue to be poisoned by lead because of the ruling, and said homeowners whose properties are infected with led-based paint now have no way to hold the companies responsible.

“It will cost the homeowners billions to clean up, and cost the Rhode Island taxpayers millions more than it already has spent to try to protect our children from future harm from lead paint,” McConnell said in a written statement.

Attorney General Patrick Lynch did not immediately comment.

Rhode Island’s lawsuit, filed in 1999, targeted former makers of lead pigment, which had long been used in paint to make it more durable.

The first trial ended in 2002 with a hung jury.

The case went to trial again in 2005. The jury ruled against three manufacturers and absolved a fourth, Atlantic Richfield Co. It was the only court case the lead paint industry had lost.

Though lead-based paint was banned from residential use in the U.S. in 1978, lawyers for the state said it had poisoned tens of thousands of children since the early 1990s in Rhode Island, where a large percentage of homes were built before the ban took effect. They said lead paint remains in an estimated 240,000 properties.

The state said the companies manufactured and sold lead-based paint even when they knew it was unsafe.

Suits in Ohio and California are still pending. The top courts in New Jersey and Missouri last year rejected public nuisance lawsuits against the companies, while a jury in Milwaukee last year ruled in favor of NL Industries in a suit brought by the city.

Ohio is the only other state that has sued. Jim Gravelle, a spokesman for that state’s attorney general’s office, said lawyers in the office were interested in what the Supreme Court said because the arguments in both cases are very similar. But he said it does not affect Ohio’s lawsuit because that suit is based on Ohio law.

“This in no way restricts Ohio’s right to hold lead paint companies liable for the extreme harm they have caused Ohio citizens under public nuisance or other causes of action,” he said.

The court did, however, hand Lynch one court victory, setting aside contempt sanctions and fines totaling $15,000 for comments the attorney general made during and after the trial.

Lynch was fined twice, once after being quoted during the trial as describing the companies as “those who would spin and twist the facts” and another for saying after the verdict the companies could not “duck and run” from their obligations to deal with lead paint problems.

Also in msnbc.com business Answer Desk: The risks of investing extensively in gold Your Career: The repercussions of expressing your faith Interactive: 10 cars we’re looking forward to in 2010 ‘Reaching out’ and the other worst buzzwords of the year   Video: Existing home sales make an unexpected jump

MORE FROM U.S. BUSINESS

U.S. business Section Front

Court orders Microsoft to stop selling Word CBS, Disney may join Apple TV venture Obama says ‘the worst is behind us’ Teachers face mass layoffs as stimulus ends States’ jobless funds going ‘absolutely broke’ Russia Web gang took millions from Citi: report NYT: Temps hired over full-time workers Banks say they’re lending, if borrowers qualify Galleon Group founder pleads not guilty Rebound leads AP’s top business stories of ’09 U.S. business Section Front   Add U.S. business headlines to your news reader: