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July 1, 2008

Whitehouse: Court let paint makers ' off the hook'

U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who filed Rhode Island's first lawsuit against lead paint manufacturers when he was the state's attorney general, said the state Supreme Court today let the companies "off the hook" by overturning a 2006 jury verdict that found corporations liable for creating a public nuisance by making paints that poisoned children.

“Many homes remain contaminated; many children already suffer from lead poisoning. Today’s decision makes abatement and treatment efforts the responsibility of Rhode Island families and taxpayers alone, letting the companies who caused this off the hook," Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, said in a statement.

In a 4-0 decision issued today, the state's highest court reversed a Superior Court jury's decision calling for Millennium Holdings, NL Industries and Sherwin-Williams to participate in an abatement program to clean houses that may have cost the companies upwards of $2.4 billion.

The court said that the state could not factually support its claim that companies created a public nuisance.

In the decision, the court said it did not mean to minimize the severity of the harm that thousands of children in Rhode Island have suffered as a result of lead poisoning.

The lead-paint issue "has for years been Rhode Island’s worst public health problem for children," Whitehouse stated. "The court’s decision to overturn a jury verdict holding the paint manufacturers who caused this problem accountable is deeply disappointing to me and to the many people who worked hard for years to remedy this harm."

After having work done on his Providence house, annual lead-screening tests had revealed Whitehouse's two children had mildly elevated blood-lead levels.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 5:59 PM | Permalink

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jimmy | July 1, 2008 6:03 PM link

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