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A 20-year old lawsuit against former lead paint manufacturers Sherwin-Williams Co., ConAgra Grocery Products Co. and NL Industries Inc., settles for $305 million to clean up California lead-paint covered houses built before 1951.
The judge for the case initially ruled that the paint companies would be required to pay $1.15 billion for the clean-up effort, but an appeals court issued the ruling that the companies would only be required for cleaning up the houses built prior to 1951.
The money will be divided between Alameda, Los Angeles, Monterey, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, Oakland, San Diego, San Francisco, and Ventura. The money is also available to help children suffering from lead poisoning.
According to ABC, “Paint suppliers financed a ballot initiative that would have wiped out the court rulings and shifted $2 billion in cleanup costs to California taxpayers. The companies ended the effort last year when state lawmakers agreed to drop pending legislation targeting the companies.”
Sherwin-Williams argued in court that the ruling was at direct odds with appellate court rulings from across the country and that they should not be retroactively liable for marketing that they claim was both truthful speech and lawful conduct.
Despite their argument, they settled the long-running lawsuit, but now California must figure out how to cleanup the homes not covered under the settlement.
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