Billion Dollar Lead Paint Lawsuit Won’t Go Away

In California, a lawsuit targeting three lead paint manufacturers is at 17 years and counting. Plaintiffs are 10 California cities and counties, mounting an unusual lawsuit under the perennial “nuisance theory.” They won a victory in 2014, when a judge in Santa Clara County ruled the manufacturers were liable for inspecting and then removing or abating residual lead from paint in 3.5 million California homes and apartments. The liability tab was set at $1.5 billion, with the largest share going to L.A. County. The companies appealed, but no action has been taken by the San Jose appeals court. The companies contend that, although the hazards of lead have been known for centuries and occupational hazards of lead dust exposure have been understood for decades, back when most of these residences were painted the hazard of deteriorating paint hadn’t registered. This article by Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik includes a screen shot of a 1956 letter from a lead industry trade group to government officials, in which the group’s Director of Health and Safety acknowledges there is a problem but says the solution is to eliminate “the slums” or “to educate the parents.” But, he adds, “most of the cases are in Negro and Puerto Rican families, and how does one tackle that job?”