The prosecution concludes the nuisance case by saying the paint corporations knowingly poisoned Rhode Islanders for decades and refused to accept responsibility.

01:00 AM EST on Saturday, February 11, 2006

BY PETER B. LORD
Journal Environment Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Attorney Jack McConnell concluded the state's lead-paint nuisance suit against four corporations yesterday with a blistering speech accusing them of knowingly poisoning Rhode Island's children for decades while refusing to take any responsibility.

"Here you've been given a unique opportunity," McConnell said to the jury. "A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help our kids and rid the state of toxic substances."

He called on the jury to find that the paint pigments produced by the four defendants had created a public nuisance, that the companies were responsible, and that the judge should make the companies clean up the paints left on more than 240,000 houses.

By some estimates, a decision by the jury to support those findings could cost the defendants billions of dollars and trigger similar lawsuits around the country.

It was expected that Judge Michael A. Silverstein would send the case to the jury yesterday afternoon. But instead he sent jurors away until Monday at 2 p.m.

Silverstein had huddled with lawyers before postponing his charge to the jury, but lawyers for both sides refused to comment on the delay.

The defense had raised a number of objections to the state's case and tried to raise more as McConnell -- a lawyer with Motley Rice, the firm hired by the state -- launched into his emotional closing argument during which he frequently raised his voice and jabbed his fist for emphasis. The courtroom was filled with friends, family members and supporters, and some said afterward that McConnell's arguments were so moving they felt like applauding.

McConnell said even though it took nearly four months for the state to present its case, the issues were simple.

The defendants -- NL Industries, Millennium Holdings LLC, Atlantic Richfield and Sherwin Williams -- made lead pigments that they knew were toxic, he said. They poisoned thousands of children in Rhode Island and left their toxic paints on hundreds of thousands of houses.

And they have continually refused to come forward and take responsibility for the damages and mess they left behind, McConnell said.

"That is such a basic business ethic they don't even teach it in business school anymore," McConnell said.

One by one McConnell reviewed the periods that each corporation made and sold lead-based pigments. In each case, McConnell said, internal documents showed the corporations knew the paints were toxic to children.

One by one McConnell attacked the defenses raised by the corporation lawyers.

The defense argued that it was legal to sell lead-based paints. But McConnell said that was no excuse.

He opened a can of Coca-Cola in front of the jury, took a sip and offered a hypothetical story.

Suppose Coca-Cola knew the caramel color was a deadly poison and sold it anyway. Someone gets brain damaged. And Coke says, sorry, it's not our fault. It was legal.

"Nobody in America would or should tolerate that kind of corporate poison," McConnell said. "Being legal is not a defense to the public-nuisance claim."

The defense argued that many government agencies specified the use of lead paints. But McConnell said the companies lobbied incessantly to get the agencies to specify use of their paints.

The defendants also insisted that the state didn't present solid evidence that their products were used in Rhode Island. McConnell called that defense absurd.

"These four defendants produced 70 to 80 percent of the white lead in the whole country. Yet they stand here and try to tell you that none of their lead is in Rhode Island. That proposition is absurd. These four companies controlled and dominated this market. Trying to say their paint is not on walls in Rhode Island is like trying to say Fords and Chevys and Toyotas are not in Rhode Island."

plord@projo.com / (401) 277-8036