Maryland House Judiciary Committee Gives Market Share Liability Bill Unfavorable Report

On March 18, the Judiciary Committee of the Maryland House of Delegates voted down 10-6 the Maryland State and Children's Lead Poisoning Recovery Act, which would establish risk contribution or market share liability as a legally recognized theory of liability for lead poisoning cases and eliminating the requirement that a person prove that a manufacturer manufactured the lead pigment contained in a certain lead-based paint that caused the damage to establish liability. Defeat of the bill is an important victory over an extremely bad piece of legislation. NPCA provided instrumental testimony against this bill on March 5, underscoring Maryland's existing laws and regulations have already successfully eliminated over 95 percent of lead poisoning cases.

NPCA testified that the bill would not prevent lead poisoning for those Marylanders who continue to live in ill-maintained housing; and it represents a radical departure from fundamental principles of tort law by ignoring the elements of proof of actual and proximate cause.

Proponents argued that in order to completely address solutions for those suffering from high blood levels, all parties "had to be at the table," strongly suggesting that the paint industry has not done enough in order to address lead poisoning. In addition to NPCA staff, several panels of witnesses testified in opposition to this bill, including Sherwin Williams, the Maryland Chamber, landlord groups, several well-respected Maryland tort lawyers, National Organization for African Americans in Housing and others. Written testimony was submitted by Professor Don Gifford, author of NPCA’s Model Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention bill.

For more information: contact NPCA’s Heidi K. McAuliffe.

Source: May 2008 Coatings, posted 3/31/08