$305 Million Settlement Ends 19-Year Lead Paint Fight Against Sherwin-Williams, ConAgra, and NL Industries

In the early twentieth century, Sherwin-Williams, ConAgra Grocery Products, and NL Industries aggressively marketed lead-based paint for residential use. Internal company documents would later show they understood the neurotoxic hazards of lead dust well before a federal residential ban took effect in 1978. Decades after that ban, millions of California homes, particularly those built before 1951, still contained deteriorating lead paint that continued to poison children.

In March 2000, Santa Clara County filed suit in Santa Clara County Superior Court on behalf of the People of California, framing the manufacturers' conduct as a public nuisance. Over the next fourteen years the case expanded to include Alameda, Los Angeles, Monterey, San Mateo, Solano, and Ventura Counties, plus the City and County of San Francisco, the City of Oakland, and the City of San Diego. Mary Alexander & Associates joined the plaintiffs' legal team as co-counsel alongside Cotchett Pitre & McCarthy, Motley Rice, and the government attorneys for each jurisdiction.

After a six-week bench trial in summer 2013, the court entered a $1.15 billion judgment against the three defendants in early 2014, ordering them to fund a statewide abatement program to identify and remediate lead hazards in residential buildings. The defendants appealed. In November 2017, California's Sixth Appellate District affirmed the liability finding, citing evidence that the companies "were well aware in the early part of the twentieth century that lead dust was poisonous." The appellate court did, however, narrow the abatement obligation to homes constructed before 1951, remanding to the trial court to recalculate the fund amount on that reduced scope.

Rather than return to the trial court for a recalculation, the parties negotiated a resolution. On July 17, 2019, the ten plaintiff jurisdictions announced a $305 million settlement. The funds flow into a court-supervised abatement program, with each participating county and city receiving an allocation to inspect and remediate lead paint hazards in older residential housing within its borders.

The case ran for nearly two decades and produced one of the largest public-nuisance judgments in California history before the appellate reduction. The $305 million settlement fund is dedicated entirely to on-the-ground abatement work in the affected communities.