Lead-paint cases sprouted around the country after Rhode Island pioneered the litigation, for example, even though the legal theory behind them struck many as a dangerous extension of nuisancelaw to hold manufacturers responsible for a product that they sold legally decades earlier.
Solicitor Rhian Morgan said the action was being brought under the Law of Private Nuisance on the grounds of the residents having "unreasonable interference with enjoying their property".
Lerach needs such allies to maintain control of securities class actions under the 1995 reform law, which was designed to end the practice of using figurehead plaintiffs to mount nuisance suits that mostly enriched plaintiff lawyers.