And if you think the courts are going to protect us, better think again!
They in the POCKET of BIDNESS!!!
"R.I. high court overturns lead paint verdict; Three firms not liable for $2.4b in cleanup costs" by Bloomberg News | July 2, 2008
WILMINGTON, Del. - Sherwin-Williams Co.and two other former makers of lead paint won a Rhode Island Supreme Court decision overturning a verdict that may have cost them as much as $2.4 billion to clean contaminated buildings.
That state's Supreme Court said yesterday that a 2006 ruling holding Sherwin-Williams, NL Industries, and Millennium Holdings LLC responsible for the costs of dealing with lead paint in about 240,000 homes, schools, and public buildings resulted from a flawed trial.
Shares of Cleveland-based Sherwin-Williams rose $2.16, or 4.7 percent, to $48.09, while Dallas-based NL Industries rose 44 cents, or 4.6 percent, to $9.97.
Yeah, who gives a shit about the KIDS!!!!
But the fucking MSM will use them as a cudgel any chance they can get against YOU, AmeriKans!!!!
The Rhode Island verdict two years ago was the first to hold the companies liable for harm including brain damage and learning disabilities caused by products sold decades ago. Sherwin-Williams, the largest US paint retailer, still faces similar cases in Ohio and California, seeking to have the paint declared a "public nuisance."
"The nuisance argument was their last gasp, so that's positive for the industry," Gene Pisasale, who helps manage $25 billion as an analyst at PNC Capital Advisors in Baltimore, said of the Rhode Island ruling. "There may be a less onerous solution going forward that involves the landlords taking control of this problem."
Yeah, fucking shovel it onto the POOR, set-upon LANDLORDS!!!
Un-fucking-believable!
PNC held 219,000 Sherwin-Williams shares as of March 31.
"This office fought this battle well, and to what appears to be the end," Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch said in a statement. He didn't specify whether the state might consider appealing to the US Supreme Court.
Charles H. Moellenberg Jr., a lawyer for Sherwin-Williams and Millennium, called the ruling "a landmark victory for common sense" and said the case was over. "There is no other avenue for the state to pursue," Moellenberg said in a statement.
State officials had estimated it may cost as much as $2.4 billion to either remove or seal up the paint. In 1978, the United States banned lead pigment in paint because of the health risks. The companies stopped making the products before the ban.
"The state has not and cannot allege any set of facts to support its public nuisance claim that would establish that defendants interfered with a public right or that defendants were in control of the lead pigment they, or their predecessors, manufactured at the time it caused harm to Rhode Island children," the justices wrote in an 81-page opinion.
Millennium is a unit of Access Industries Holdings LLC, the closely held company controlled by billionaire Leonard Blavatnik.
Sherwin-Williams, with $8 billion in sales last year, said in an April filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission it couldn't estimate the potential costs related to lead-paint litigation and that it "has not accrued any amounts for such litigation."
Research has shown that prolonged exposure to lead paint can cause brain damage, learning disabilities, and sometimes death. Children get sick after breathing lead dust or eating paint chips.
Ah, FUCK 'EM! Especially when CORPORATE $$$$ is at stake!!!!
DuPont Co., the third-biggest US chemical maker, settled the Rhode Island claims in 2005, agreeing to pay $12.5 million. The state Supreme Court's action "will limit the likelihood of additional states filing suits against the lead pigment manufacturers," Jeffrey Zekauskas, a JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst, said in a note to investors.
The state's lawyers produced evidence that the companies sold paint with lead pigment in Rhode Island. They argued the companies knew the paint was toxic and kept it on the market to pump profits.
I wouldn't be a bit surprised!
Paint makers said that trying the case under public-nuisance laws allowed jurors to hold the companies responsible without relying on any evidence that their specific lead pigment was used on Rhode Island buildings.
Don Scott, a lawyer for NL Industries, said the state Supreme Court ruling "brings Rhode Island back into the mainstream of national law" after appellate courts in New Jersey, Missouri, and Illinois rejected public-nuisance claims."Whatever that means these days?
Does AmeriKa have ANY LAWS that aren't ARBITRARY or IGNORED?
WTF?
And I guess you can read the handwriting on the wall in this next case, huh?
Sorry, ladies!
"Wal-Mart faces Minn. labor law trial" by Bloomberg News | July 2, 2008
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. broke Minnesota labor laws, a state judge ruled, handing the world's largest retailer its third straight defeat in a wage-class action trial and the possibility a jury may order it to pay $2 billion.
The company required hourly employees to work off the clock during training and denied full rest or meal breaks in violation of state laws, Minnesota District Judge Robert King Jr. ruled yesterday. He said Wal-Mart broke labor laws more than 2 million times and ordered the company to give employees $6.5 million in back pay.
"Wal-Mart's failure to compensate plaintiffs was willful," the judge wrote. "Wal-Mart was on notice from numerous sources of the wage and hour violations at issue and failed to correct the problem."
The lawsuit is one of more than 70 cases, including class actions, or group suits, in which Wal-Mart has been accused of wage law violations. The retailer lost a $78 million jury verdict in Pennsylvania in 2006 over rest breaks and unpaid work and a $172 million verdict in California in 2005 over meal breaks. Both verdicts have been appealed.
"They are involved in more litigation over alleged violations of wage and hour laws than any other company," said professor Carl Tobias of the University of Richmond School of Law in Virginia. "They might want to reevaluate their policies."
King's decision means Wal-Mart will face a second trial in Minnesota state court, this time before a jury. Minnesota labor law allows a fine of up to $1,000 per violation of wage and hour rules. With 2 million violations, that may total up to $2 billion. At the Oct. 20 trial, jurors will determine how much each violation is worth and consider punitive damages.
Which is HOW IT SHOULD BE!!!!
Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., may appeal, said a spokeswoman. The lawsuit was filed by four women on behalf of about 56,000 Wal-Mart and Sam's Club employees."
