The Nuances Of Nuisance
July 3, 2008
Before Sheldon Whitehouse was a Democrat U.S. Senator from Rhode Island, he was a public-nuisance lawyer . . . excuse me, I mean he was a public-spirited Attorney General who tried a novel legal theory in lead-paint lawsuits based on the “public nuisance” theory.
The idea here is simple—hold paint companies liable for gigantic damages whether or not there was actually an injured party. Lead, of course, has been stripped from paint for decades. Never mind. A Rhode Island verdict two years ago caused Sherwin-Williams to see its market cap drop by almost $2 billion, about one-third of its value. Seeing dollar signs, a South Carolina firm called Motley Rice made an agreement with the Rhode Island AG to go after the paint companies for a contingency worth almost 17 percent of any settlement. In other words, mega millions.
It was, alas, all for naught. The Wall Street Journal details how the Rhode Island Supreme Court slapped down this bit of litigious nonsense. Missouri and New Jersey have also rejected the “public nuisance” theory.
So tell me, who is the public nuisance now?