Three Companies Found Liable for Lead Paint

A Rhode Island court found Sherwin Williams Co., Millennium Holdings, and NL Industries liable in February 2006 for creating a public nuisance by making lead-based paint before it was banned in 1978. Although the judge dismissed punitive damage claims, the jury ordered the companies to abate lead-based paint on an estimated 240,000 Rhode Island homes, a process expected to cost at least $1 billion. A fourth defendant, Atlantic Richfield, was found not liable. The ruling, the paint industry’s first loss in a lawsuit of this type, could have national ramifications. “This case is hugely precedent-setting,” Jack McConnell, one of the state’s lawyers, told

The Providence Journal. “And my phone has been ringing off the hook.”