Supreme Court lets stand Calif. ruling holding lead paint makers liable for $400 million cleanup cost
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Monday dealt a defeat to business groups in a closely watched California case, rejecting appeals of a ruling that requires former makers of lead paint to pay $400 million or more to clean up old homes.
Business lawyers said they fear the decision will give a green light to other suits seeking to hold manufacturers liable for damage inflicted on the public, including the opioid crisis and climate change.
“The decision ... poses an enormous risk to everyone who has ever done business in California, as it opens the door to potentially unbounded suits targeting manufacturers of products sold decades ago,” wrote former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement in appeal on behalf of Conagra Grocery Products. The food company was held liable because it had acquired a firm that once sold lead paint.
The justices had considered the appeals in the lead paint cases in late September and again last Friday, the first weekly conferences to include Justice Brett Kavanaugh. It takes a vote of four justices to hear an appeal. On Monday, the court issued a brief order saying it would not hear Conagra vs. California or Sherwinwilliams vs. California.
“This is very significant victory for the tens of thousands of California children who have been poisoned by lead paint,” said Greta S. Hansen, a lawyer for Santa Clara County, which led the lawsuit brought on behalf of 10 municipalities including Los Angeles County. “Sherwin Williams and its co-defendants knew their product was toxic and still sold it to unwitting families. The case will provide the funds needed to protect future generations of California’s children from the devastating effect of lead paint.”
The case against the lead paint makers began in 2000 as a product-liability suit on behalf of victims. But judges said this claim was flawed for several reasons. Lead paint was legal and commonly used prior to the 1970s. And it was not clear that any particular company’s product could be blamed for the flaking paint in old homes.
But the lawyers refiled the suit in 2011 based on the so-called public nuisance doctrine, allowing local governments to sue over such things as when someone unlawfully obstructs the free passage of a river or road and causes harm to the entire community or neighborhood. After years of legal skirmishing, the case went to trial in Santa Clara County in 2013.
Lawyers for Santa Clara and other municipalities argued that lead in paint was a known toxin that is especially damaging to children. And they said the companies that sold the lead paint should be required to help pay for removing it. A judge agreed in 2014 and said the several companies must contribute $1.1 billion for the clean up.
A California appellate court upheld the decision last year but limited the cleanup to homes built before 1951, which in turn reduced the amount to about $400 million.