NL Industries

NL Industries (NYSE: NL), formerly known as the National Lead Company, is a lead smelting company now currently based in Houston, Texas. National Lead was one of the 12 original stocks included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average at the time of its creation on May 26, 1896.[1]

NL Industries (Dutch Boy Paint) Specimen Stock Certificate, c.1975

History

It began business in Philadelphia in 1772.[2] The name "National Lead Company" was used since 1891 after a series of mergers. National Lead changed its name to NL Industries in 1971.

Legal issues

NL Industries has encountered legal problems based on their long history of selling lead paint.

On January 7, 2014 the final statement of decision for The People of the State of California vs. Atlantic Richfield Company, Conagra Grocery Products Company, E.I. Du Pont De Nemours and Company, NL Industries, Inc., and the Sherwin-Williams Company, Case No.: 1-00-CV-788657 was entered by James P. Kleinberg, Judge, Superior Court of California.[3] By March 26, 2014 Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg's final amended judgment against NL Industries has them jointly and severally with ConAgra and Sherwin-Williams pay $1.15 billion.[4] Members of the team of attorneys who fought the case, including Mary E. Alexander of Mary Alexander & Associates, P.C. in San Francisco, Joseph W. Cotchett and Nancy L. Fineman of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP in Burlingame, Calif., Peter Earle of the Law Office of Peter Earle in Milwaukee, Wis., and Fidelma L. Fitzpatrick of the firm Motley Rice in Providence, R.I. were given a 2014 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award at the annual Public Justice Gala and Awards Dinner on July 27 at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Md.[5]

National Lead and Dutch Boy Paints

in 1907, National Lead entered the consumer market for titanium paints, creating a product line under the name "Dutch Boy". Dutch Boy paints competed with other brands that contained mineral products supplied by National Lead. Ironically, the "Dutch Boy Painter", which was created by Lawrence Carmichael Earle, became National Lead's symbol for many years.

NL Industries sold off the Dutch Boy brand in 1980 to Sherwin-Williams, two years after the CPSC's directive banning on the manufacturing of lead housepaint went into effect.

References

  1. ↑ "History of the Dow", The Motley Fool, May 29, 1996. Accessed October 24, 2011.
  2. ↑ "National Lead Company". Harvard University. Retrieved 2011-10-24. The National Lead Company, now known as NL Industries, began business in Philadelphia in 1772. Several lead manufacturers banded together and incorporated as the National Lead Company in 1891. The company has been well known for its white-lead paints, sold since 1907 under the Dutch Boy label. Over the twentieth century, the company has produced many other products, including titanium dioxide paint, atomic bomb elements, and ball-bearing slides. ...
  3. ↑ Kleinberg, James (7 January 2014). "Judge Kleinberg's Order, final statement of decision, Case Number 1-00-CV-788657" (PDF). Santa Clara County Superior Court's Electronic Filing System. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
  4. ↑ Kleinberg, James (26 March 2014). "Judge Kleinberg's Order, Final Amended Judgment March 26, 2014, Case Number 1-00-CV-788657" (PDF). Santa Clara County Superior Court's Electronic Filing System. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
  5. ↑ "Attorneys Who Won Landmark Lead Paint Judgment and Cleanup Named Public Justice Trial Lawyers of the Year". The Public Justice Foundation. 28 July 2014. Retrieved 27 August 2014.

External links