Several years ago I lived with my son (now 6 years old) in an apartment in Massachusetts that was part of a four unit building. The landlord told me that he had done "some deleading" on his own and that he thought the unit was now safe. As part of the lease there was some language that said I was responsible for making sure my boy did not eat any paint and that I could not sue the landlord for damages if he did. After that, we moved into a unit with a new landlord who did things right and showed me paperwork proving that our new unit was lead free. Now my son has been diagnosed as having lead poisoning. I have no idea how it happened, but he must have got the lead poisoning in the apartment I was in before. I never saw him eating any paint, but he did spend a lot of time in the unit with my mother and a baby sitter on days when I had to work. So now I'm wondering if I can still sue the owner of the other building that did his own work on the lead paint issue?
Submitted by Grett79 on Mon, 08/29/2011 - 09:25
Lead paint liability in Massachusetts
Yes you can. Massachusetts lead paint law creates strict liability for landlords who rent to children without making the unit safe. What that means, in a nutshell, is that a plaintiff does not need to prove the landlord was negligent, only that he allowed a child to live in a unit without proper deleading and that injury resulted to the child. Also, Massachusetts law does not allow the owner of a rental unit to circumvent the lead paint laws, or to avoid civil liability when he does, by getting the tenant to sign a waiver regarding lead paint dangers in the rental unit. Discuss this matter with a MA personal injury lawyer. She will be able to give you a more in-depth explanation of how the landlord's liability can be established. Good luck with your child's treatment.
Hi: Sorry to hear about this.
Hi: Sorry to hear about this. Unfortunately, in order to have a case, the lead levels suffered by your child have to be very high. Also, many insurance policies exclude lead paint from coverage. If you would like, I would be happy to talk more about the case with you. Thank you.
Attorney Chris Earley