That lead paint lawsuit in Columbus, OH: Were they serious?

Reading all the media coverage as well as both sides' statements about the dismissal of the lead paint public nuisance suit in Columbus, Ohio, we have to wonder if the city approached this as a Hail-Mary pass.  The City hoped to get from the former lead paint companies about $1.7 billion to make about 150,000 residences in Columbus lead-safe or lead-free.

It's hard to image that the City Fathers were serious. For example, at the time the lawsuit was filed - two years ago - of the 10,407 Columbus children screened for elevated levels of lead in their blood, only 1 percent or 88 were found to have that. The decade before that, reports Mark Ferenchik in THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH, 720 were found with elevated levels. Also, the federal government, notes Ferenchik, has plowed about $15 million over 10 years to make about 2000 units lead-safe. 

And, there is the matter of the legal standing of the suit. After the Rhode Island Supreme Court ruled that the case in that state should have been dismissed before it ever went to trial, how nebulous those legal grounds were had been confirmed. In this COLUMBUS DISPATCH article, Jones Day attorney Chuck Moellenberg, who represents Sherwin-Williams in the lead paint litigation, bluntly says: The case has no legs. Moellenberg also pointed to the "the Lucas County case, in which a judge ruled the city of Toledo's public nuisance argument is a claim under the state's Product Liability Act."