Paint manufacturers dispute lead verdict

Cleanup could cost between $1.37 billion and $3.74 billion.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- Three former lead paint manufacturers found liable for creating a public nuisance in Rhode Island asked a judge Thursday to either dismiss the case against them or hold a new trial.
The companies, including Cleveland-based Sherwin-Williams Co., said the state never showed they made the lead paint found in Rhode Island, and that Superior Court Judge Michael Silverstein wrongly allowed the jury to rule against them even if it didn't find evidence that they did anything wrong.
"The trial record is so devoid of evidence, and the proceedings were so fundamentally unfair, that the verdict cannot stand," the motion said.
A jury in February found Sherwin-Williams and two other former makers of lead paint and lead pigment, Millennium Holdings LLC and NL Industries Inc., responsible for causing a public nuisance.
Jurors ordered them to clean it up but did not rule on a dollar amount. That job falls to Silverstein, who has not yet decided how much, if anything, the companies must pay.
With roughly 240,000 homes in Rhode Island contaminated with the toxic paint, the state has said the cleanup could cost between $1.37 billion and $3.74 billion.
What's in filing
'Thursday's filing to Silverstein said he made numerous errors during the trial. It also said property owners and landlords who do not maintain their buildings were to blame and that lawyers for the state made inflammatory comments to the jury.
Michael Healey, a spokesman for Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch, said the filing was routine and Lynch was confident the judge would deny it. Healey said lawyers in the office had not yet had a chance to read it.
Jack McConnell, a lawyer for the state, said the filing duplicated arguments already rejected by the judge and jury at trial.
Lead paint was banned for residential use in 1978 after studies showed that it could cause brain damage and other health problems in children.