By Brian E. Clark
WisBusiness.com
The lead paint industry scored a major victory today in the first of 30-plus personal injury lawsuits brought in Wisconsin when a Milwaukee County Circuit Court jury said that paint companies were not responsible for harm claimed by a young man’s family.
Another 20 similar suits are pending around the country. In a highly controversial 2005 decision that stemmed from the Milwaukee case, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that personal injury lawsuits could be brought against manufacturers of paint and lead additives even if the plaintiffs couldn’t prove which manufacturer was responsible for the poisoning.
The Milwaukee jury agreed that Steven Thomas, now 17 and developmentally disabled, ate lead when he lived in two older Milwaukee homes as a toddler. However, the jury said Thomas’ brain was not hurt by the lead. It also said the therapy used at a hospital to get ride of the lead did not hurt him.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for the Sherwin-Williams Co. and other firms, hailed the jury’s decision.
“Under Wisconsin law, property owners are legally responsible for keeping their properties free from lead paint hazards,” said Bonnie J. Campbell, representing Sherwin-Williams, Atlantic Richfield Co., Millennium Holdings and NL Industries. Thomas had also sued American Cyanamid.
The paint companies disputed whether the poisoning was caused by white lead carbonate, the only one of several lead additives to be named in the lawsuit; whether some of the manufacturers made the specific products that were found in the homes where Thomas lived; and whether they acted responsibly in marketing and selling their products.
Thomas’ lawyers said Thomas’ legal said paint makers knew as far back as the early 1900s that lead was dangerous but fought attempts to regulate or ban it. Paint manufacturers have said in court that they knew lead paint was dangerous, but that, properly handled, it was safe.
They cited federal standards that recommended homeowners use lead paint because it was durable. Through the 1940s, house paint was up to 50 percent lead by weight. In 1978, the U.S. government banned lead entirely from paint.
