KKI Appeal Case Successfully Argued Before Court Of Appeals

Attorney Brian S. Brown of Brown & Barron, LLC in Baltimore successfully argued before the Court of Appeals of Maryland on behalf of their client in the controversial Kennedy Krieger Institute (KKI) lead-paint abatement study case. Thanks to their efforts, the client will be able to seek damages from KKI after she suffered health problems related to lead poisoning, despite not directly participating in the institute’s study. This marks a tremendous victory for Brown & Barron, LLC, our client, and any other person wrongfully afflicted by a negligent third party in a similar manner. As Attorney Brown noted after the high Court’s decision, “[The ruling] is a very important decision in tort law in general. You don’t have to be in privity for there to be a duty owed.”

Details of the KKI Appeal Case

From 1993 to 1999, the Kennedy Krieger Institute conducted a controversial study of lead paint, its effects on young children, and how to abate the homes that contain lead-based paint. KKI registered children aged 6 months to 4 years to participate in its study and negligently exposed them to homes it knew contained lead-based paint. It then compared various levels of lead abatement methods in the homes with the children’s blood-lead levels. The children’s parents were not properly informed that the children may be exposed to lead, the dangers of lead, or that the children’s blood-lead levels would be used for comparison purposes with the different levels of abatement. In 2001, the case result of Grimes v. Kennedy Krieger Institute Inc. permitted study participants exposed to lead-based paint to seek compensation from KKI.

However, there were many children who did not directly participate in the KKI study but still lived in the same conditions. This is the situation our client found herself in. She was too old to technically be a participant but since she lived in the same house as her sister, who was a participant in the study, she was poisoned by lead-based paint and eventually developed related health issues.

A previous ruling barred siblings of KKI lead paint test participants from filing claims against KKI. It deemed the claimants were excluded from bringing a claim because they we not study participants. Attorney Brian Brown of Barron & Brown, LLC was given the unique opportunity to take the case to the Court of Appeals of Maryland. With so much riding on how he argued for his client’s right to compensation, it was a truly remarkable victory for the plaintiffs.

For more information about this recent case victory, you can click here to view a full article from The Daily Record. (You may be required to login.) To learn more about Brown & Barron, LLC and our services as Baltimore personal injury and tort attorneys, you can contact our team at any time to schedule a free consultation.