Lead Paint - "RI SC got it terribly wrong," Motley Rice, PROVIDENCE JOURNAL

Today is the third time that an attorney from or associated with plaintiff law firm Motley Rice has taken on the Rhode Island Supreme Court's decision on the lead paint public nuisance case.  After nine years of litigation, the Justices of the state's High Court overturned the verdict.  There's more.  The Justices said that the case should never have gone to trial. [Here is that RI SC ruling Download statev.LeadIndustriesAssoc.,Inc..pdf.]

Today, in the form of an opinon-editorial  in RI's largest newspaper THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL, Motley Rice attorneys Fidelma Fitzpatrick, Bob McConnell, and Jack McConnell state explicitly: "The Rhode Island Supreme Court got it terribly wrong in its decision in the recent lead-paint case."   

In the next 11 paragraphs, they decry the legal decision with everything except legal arguments.  The three quote Abraham Lincoln, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and even Saint Augustine.  They rant against how much one of the defendants - Sherwin-Williams spent on legal costs.  They remind us yet again that low-income children are the most vulnerable to the possible hazards of lead paint. 

Attempting to rebut a legal ruling with non-legal arguments is insulting to the readers of THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL.  Brashly, it underestimates the ability of the residents of RI to discern points of law from other realities of life.  The High Court in RI said the lead paint public nuisance litigation had no merit.  That is a point of law. 

Yes, the realities of life tend to be that justice is not always kind.  In addition, large corporations tend to have more resources to invest in litigation than does a government entity like the RI Attorney General's office.  That's exactly why the authors of this op-ed - Motley Rice attorneys - were brought in on a contingency basis to assist with the litigation.  Had the state prevailed, Motley Rice would have earned 16+ percent of abatement funds.  Since the plaintiff's abatement proposal was in the billions, Motley Rice had plenty to earn. Also, no newsflash, low-income children tend to live in older residential units.  I was one of the children in a downtown Jersey City, New Jersey tenement.  My grandmother and mother intervened. They had the property owner paint over the blue flaking paint I was chewing. That took care of that.

Last Friday, at the RI Superior Court hearing before Judge Michael Silverstein on reimbursement of certain costs to the defendants, Assistand Attorney General Neil Kelly also decried the RI SC decision.  In an interview on that hearing with AP reporter Eric Tucker, so did Jack McConnell.

Odd that those with law licenses would argue legal points by introducing everything but points of law.  All attorneys, not just government and plaintiff ones, might feel a sense of shame that members of the bar are behaving in what I perceive to be an unprofessional manner.

Note: If I were a member of the RI bar, I would tell the authors of this op-ed: "You'll never eat lunch in this town again."

 

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