By Kim Martineau
A brother and sister who breathed in lead-contaminated dust in their Albany apartment were awardcd $6.2 million Friday in one of the largest lead-p isoning verdicts in upstate New York.
Both children suffer permanent brain damage. The 8-year-old boy can't draw, copy or articulate certain sounds. His 7-year-old sister has milder problems, but fidgets constantly and has other learning difficulties. Both children were exposed to lead dust and bits of chipping and peeling lead paint in their West street apartment between 1994 and 1997, according to testimony that unfolded during nearly three weeks of a jury trial before state Supreme Court justice James Canfield.
Though the two-family home on West Street has two owners, the family that managed the property was found liable for 98 percent of the damages. At trial, Norman and Fui Me Chen, admitted that prior to 1994, four children had been poisoned by lead at other properties they own in Albany, on Dana Avenue and Elk' Street. The Chens live in Clifton Park and are named in three pending lawsuits related to alleged lead poisoning that occurred on those properties.
During a routine doctor's visit in july 1994, the boy received a blood test which came back positive for high lead levels. An Albany County health inspector visited the apartment, found lead hazards and ordered the Chens and co-owner, Jianguo Wang, to perfbrm a lead abatement. The Chens hired an experienced painter to scrape and repaint the spots where chipping had occurred. But the painter had never performed a lead abatement, which he failed to disclose to Albany County or the Chens.
Two weeks later, after Albany County had certified that the lead hazards were gone, the boy was poisoned again and hospitalized. The apartment was reinspected by the county and abatement was repeated. But two years later, the boy's younger sister shoved signs of lead poisoning. The county inspector returned and found some of the same lead hazards identified in 1994. The family moved out several months later.
Because lead paint was banned in 1978, the problem of lead poisoning is greatest in cities like Albany with older housing stock. In 1997, there were nearly 14,000 confinned lead-poisoning cases in New York.
"This is an epidemic," said Peter Danziger, the children's lawyer. Danziger refused to give the children's names for fear they would be taunted by their classmates. Both children are first-graders; the boy is in special education classes and has repeated kindergarten. He will receive $4 million of the $6.2 million verdict.
A separate trial will be held on Albany County's alleged role in the poisoning of the children. The case against the county was iniaially dismissed on procedural grounds but reinstated later. The Chens' artomey, Michael Lonergan, could not be reached for comment.