A Baltimore City jury recently awarded a 23-year-old woman over $20 million dollars in a lead paint case. The Plaintiff was allegedly exposed to lead paint between 1987 and 1989. The Housing Authority property was demolished before any lead paint testing, but, based on circumstantial evidence that she lived in a house built before 1950, had elevated lead levels and was seen with paint chips in her mouth as a child, the case was permitted to go to verdict, consistent with the Court of Special Appeals 2002 opinion in Dow v L & R Properties Inc. Her damages were based on an alleged 10-point drop in her IQ to 89. Economic damages were about $825,000 and the remaining amount awarded was for non-economic damages that are subject to the $350,000 statutory cap.
It would not be surprising if the constitutionality of the cap is challenged by Plaintiff’s attorney Brian Brown of Saul E. Kerpelman and Associates.
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