Ohio City Drops Lead-Paint Suit

The city of Columbus, Ohio, has voluntarily dropped its public nuisance lawsuit against several former manufacturers of lead paint.

The decision came about a week after the Rhode Island Supreme Court threw out a closely watched case against the paint companies that could have cost them more than $2 billion in cleanup costs.

"The unanimous ruling by the Rhode Island Supreme Court ... has confirmed that public nuisance lawsuits are ill-advised and without merit," according to a statement by Charles Moellenberg Jr., an attorney for Sherwin-Williams Co., a defendant in Columbus' case.

With Columbus' action, all 11 public nuisance suits filed by Ohio cities since 2006 have been either voluntarily dismissed or rejected by courts, Moellenberg said.

In August 2007 the state Supreme Court upheld a new law preventing manufacturers of allegedly defective products from being sued on public nuisance grounds.

Columbus filed its suit the previous year in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas to force Sherwin-Williams and other paint companies to pay for the cleanup of lead paint in local homes and buildings.

The complaint alleged public nuisance, unjust enrichment and indemnity and sought punitive damages.

Although the city has dropped its case, a lawsuit filed by Ohio's attorney general on behalf of the state will continue.

Only one other lead-paint public nuisance suit, filed by several California municipalities, is still alive.

In the Rhode Island case - the first brought by a state against the lead-paint industry - the Supreme Court reversed a jury's decision that the companies caused a public nuisance.

The high court said the public nuisance claim should have been dismissed at the outset because the state failed to prove that the companies had control over the lead paint they manufactured after the product was sold.

The Ohio cities of Akron, Athens, Canton, Cincinnati, Dayton, East Cleveland, Lancaster, Massillon and Youngstown all have voluntarily dismissed their public nuisance suits.

A state court rejected the city of Toledo's lead-paint lawsuit last December.

The court said the case alleged product liability, not public nuisance, and therefore was barred by the 10-year statute of repose under state law.

Toledo said the companies manufactured and sold lead paint before 1933.

Lead paint can cause learning disabilities, brain damage and other health problems in children who ingest dust or flakes.

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