Our Recent Success with Ohio Court of Appeals in a Lead Poisoning Case

One of the areas where we regularly concentrate our practice is in the area of lead poisoning. We often have to deal with a number of ongoing defenses and appeals by landlords and their lawyers in the processing of these claims. One of Cuyahoga County's biggest landlords is the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority ("CMHA"). CMHA is suppose to provide safe residential housing for low income persons and families. However, many children living at CMHA owned units regularly get poisoned by deteriorating lead paint - lead paint that Ohio and federal law require not be in a deteriorating state. Notwithstanding the fact that the Ohio Supreme Court has made it clear that the doctrine of "sovereign immunity" (i.e. the doctrine that says cities, counties and the State of Ohio, for the most part, cannot be sued for negligence) does not apply to injuries that occur in buildings or on grounds of governmental buildings, CMHA attempted to argue that they were immune for any lead poisoning injuries to small children. However, the Cuyahoga County Court of Appeals rejected that argument in Bozeman v. CMHA and held that CMHA does have to defend cases involving lead poisoning injuries. The case is now back at the trial court for further proceedings. Once again, stay tuned for details.