Lead Paint Poisoning Verdict of $7M Appealed by Sherwin-Williams
Sherwin-Williams is appealing a jury award of $7 million to a developmentally disabled teen as a result of a lead paint poisoning lawsuit in Mississippi.
This is the second time the case, which has been pending for more than a decade, will reach the Mississippi Supreme Court.
The original lawsuit was filed in 2000 by Shermerker Pollard, the mother of Trellvion Gaines, in Jefferson County Circuit Court against Sherwin-Williams. The family alleged that Gaines suffered lead poisoning after eating paint chips and inhaling lead paint dust while living at his grandmother’s home, which had been painted with Sherwin-Williams paint in the early 1970s.
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Children diagnosed with lead poisoning after exposure to peeling or chipping lead paint in a rental home may be entitled to financial compensation and benefits.
Learn More About this Lawsuit SEE IF YOU QUALIFY FOR COMPENSATIONSherwin-Williams was initially successful at the trial court level in 2003, but the Mississippi Supreme Court overturned that decision in 2007, ordering a new trial.
In 2009, a jury ruled in favor of Gaines and his mother and ordered the paint maker to pay the family $7 million. Sherwin-Williams is now filing an appeal of that decision, in hopes of getting the court to overturn the verdict and find that the company can not be held liable for the boy’s illness.
Gaines currently suffers from learning disabilities and only reads at a second-grade level, which his family alleges was caused by exposure to the Sherwin-Williams lead paint.
Sherwin-Williams indicates that they have not used lead in residential paint since 1972 and the paint was banned in the United States in 1978. However, many older homes and apartment buildings throughout the country still have old paint on the walls.
One of the more common causes of lead exposure in the United States is lead-based paint, which can result from children eating paint chips or inhaling lead paint dust in older homes that are poorly maintained.
Exposure to the toxic paint can cause children to suffer lead poisoning, often resulting in nervous system injury, brain damage, seizures or convulsions, growth or mental retardation, coma and even death for young children.
Lead paint poisoning lawsuits are typically pursued against landlords or homeowners who failed to adequately remove the toxic paint or allowed chipping or flaking paint to be present in homes where young children reside.
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1 Comments
milesDecember 13, 2012 at 2:48 pm
Sherwin-Williams excel at corporate greed. They steal from painters and use the PDCA to do their dirty work. Again, Chris Connor, CEO of Sherwin-Williams, applauds the moral support from National Associate Member Carlos Rodriguez (CEO of ADP) for supporting criminal fraud at PDCA. Have any ideas or suggestions regarding ADP's corporate responsibility efforts? I would love to hear them. Please send[Show More]Sherwin-Williams excel at corporate greed. They steal from painters and use the PDCA to do their dirty work. Again, Chris Connor, CEO of Sherwin-Williams, applauds the moral support from National Associate Member Carlos Rodriguez (CEO of ADP) for supporting criminal fraud at PDCA. Have any ideas or suggestions regarding ADP's corporate responsibility efforts? I would love to hear them. Please send them to me at carlos.rodriguez.csr@adp.com BEHIND CLOSED DOORS RJ Wells (rjwells@sherwin.com) , Senior VP of Sherwin Williams corporate communications, orders PDCA to sue Miles. Howe, Anderson, and Steyer, legal consult for the PDCA, James Anderson (janderson@haspc.com) files lawsuit. Richard Greene, CEO, CAE, of the PDCA approves of the lawsuit Gregory Schnurr, national president (and a federally convicted felon) approves It has been my experience that the PDCA protects the interest of its corporate sponsors like Sherwin-Williams at the expense of its members. Several years ago when Sherwin-Williams broke a contractual agreement and stole my intellectual property I began to speak about this issue at PDCA meetings. However, rather than receiving support from the PDCA leadership they ordered me to cease and desist. When I refused to do so, they filed a lawsuit against me. The financial influence of corporations has indeed corrupted the PDCA’s expressed purpose of serving the interests of its members. In light of this, I appeal to you, the members of the PDCA, to help me resolve my dispute with Sherwin-Williams by signing the petition below. Thank you for your time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7AX6XPYFzw Hello, my name is Miles Oravetz and I am a professional commercial painter of 38 years located in CT. Approximately 10 years ago, several painting contractors and I invested our money in creating a DIY wallpapering video which we sent to Sherwin-Williams in hopes of selling it; however, as Sherman-Williams offered us only $300, we took our product elsewhere. About two months later, while picking up supplies at a Sherwin-Williams store I came across a DIY wallpapering video and discovered that Sherwin-Williams was, in fact, selling their own version of our video. While Sherwin-Williams deny this was the case you can watch below, side-by-side, our production alongside Sherwin-Williams version and judge for yourself whether Sherwin-Williams stole our work. As small business owners, we lack the financial resources to mount a legal challenge against a large, powerful corporation like Sherman-Williams. So, we are asking for help from you, the public, in telling Sherwin-Williams what the right thing to do is.