After Rhode Island Superior Court Judge Michael Silverstein ruled, last May, that the state was not required to repay them, companies that sold lead-based paint have appealed the decision.
The paint manufacturers argued that they were due reimbursement because in 2008 the state Supreme Court had ruled in their favor, reversing a landmark verdict that may have cost them billions of dollars.
On Friday, a notice of appeal by the three companies that had won the original case, Millennium Holdings LLC, NL Industries Inc., and Sherwin-Williams Co. Three other companies that had been sued for the same infraction – selling lead based paint – but never went to trial, joined in the appeal.
Charles Moellenberg, the lawyer for Sherwin-Williams, said that Rhode Island rules allow winning sides of a lawsuit to recover costs, and that there should be no difference with this case.