Finally, Sherwin-Williams had hit the wall in its long-running state-level legal battle regarding its previous production/sale of lead paint. That had been in California.
In a bench trial, it, along with NL Industries and ConAgra, was convicted of causing a public nuisance through lead paint. The appeals court upheld the conviction. The state supreme court refused to review the appeals court's ruling.
The one thing Sherwin-Williams did get at the appeals level was to have the more than $1 billion abatement for the three defendants reduced. To be factored in were only those residences constructed before 1951. The last time I checked, the amount of reduction hadn't yet be determined.
The law firm Jones Day has been representing Sherwin-Williams in all the state-level lead paint public nuisance cases. In Rhode Island the firm did get the lawsuit dismissed by the state supreme court. That had been after two trials. One had ended in a mistrial. The other in a conviction.
But, Sherwin-Williams, I was told by a number of lawyers not directly associated with the litigation, had to know this: CA was not RI. And, indeed, it was not. The public nuisance law was different. Many legal watchers expected hell to break loose in CA on this kind of litigation. And that's what happened.
The Jones Day lawyers are going to attempt to have the U.S. supreme court (SCOTUS) review the conviction. Could that happen? After all, much is at stake.
If Sherwin-Williams runs out of legal defense options, other CA counties and other states could decide to file similar lawsuits against it.
Also, the plaintiff lawyers and government entities could be emboldened to file public nuisance lawsuits against many other kinds of industries.
Already there are those kinds of suits against pharma and oil companies. Here is the one filed by the Ohio Attorney General against opioid manufacturers/marketers. It is now being settled.
In addition, Sherwin-Williams' stock could be negatively affected. Its branding as a good corporate citizen could also be tarnished.
What Jones Day has going for it in reaching out to SCOTUS is that it has internal intelligence on how the justices there "think." It makes it its business to hire former SCOTUS clerks.
During the past five years, for example, The American Lawyer reports, it had hired 36 former SCOTUS clerks. It tends to pay them hefty sign-on bonuses.
Given that resource, the lawyers will know exactly how to position and package the request for review.
However, that only gives Sherwin-Williams a decent shot. There is no guarantee that SCOTUS will put it on the schedule.
So, in so many ways, Sherwin-Williams is in play.
Also, if Jones Day has to admit defeat on this one, some legal scholars will make a name for themselves analyzing what went wrong and how any of it could have been prevented.
Everyone in the loop faces serious kinds of risk - monetary and reputational.
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