Missouri court transfers lead poisoning case in Doe Run Peru to US court

The Saint Louis College for Public Health and Social Justice, a Catholic university, learned of the reported infections and illnesses and sent researchers to Peru to test children living there.

Nuns file lawsuit on behalf of children

“They found that these children had the highest blood lead levels ever seen in the world. That was the key reason for our lawsuit,” St. Louis-based attorney Jerry Schlichter, a partner at Schlichter Bogard, told MINING.com.

Schlichter has represented the plaintiffs since 2007, when her sisters Kate Reid and Mary Heeny filed several lawsuits in Missouri state court on behalf of the injured Peruvian citizens, who were children at the time of the alleged harm. The plaintiffs claim Doe Run Peru failed to sufficiently reduce LOMC's lead emissions as required by its Environmental Remediation and Management Plan, according to court documents.

LOMC operated continuously until its closure in June 2009. Doe Run Peru filed for bankruptcy shortly thereafter.

The lawsuits, filed under Missouri law, relied on the theory that Doe Run Peru was controlled from the United States by Doe Run Resources Corp. and its executives, whose decisions exposed the plaintiffs to lead poisoning and caused permanent and irreversible cognitive impairment, Judge Erickson said. Many more lawsuits eventually followed, so that 40 cases were consolidated in Missouri federal court. Law360 reported.

In response to the plaintiffs' claims, Doe Run Resources Corp. and its parent company later moved for summary judgment on the grounds that Peruvian law, rather than Missouri law, should apply.

Last year, local media reported that Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey had filed a brief in federal court arguing that the lawsuit should be handled by courts in Peru. Three months later, a political action committee formed to support his 2024 hopes received a $50,000 check from Doe Run's parent company, New York-based Renco Group, which Missouri Independent reported.

“We allege, and this is a fact, that all of the negligent actions that caused this harm to these Peruvian children, both in the creation of the company in Doe Run as a subsidiary of American Corporation and the way it was financed and the way it was orchestrated and handled, all of the decisions that led to this harm were made in this country and not in Peru,” Schlichter said in an interview.

In this case, Doe Run Resources used the so-called “Scorched Earth Defense” strategy in every respect, Schlichter said.

Further US lawsuits against Renco subsidiaries

Rennert made headlines in 2016 when a group of retirees whose pensions had been cut won a lengthy battle. Rennert settled the lawsuit in which a U.S. agency accused Renco Group Inc of trying to handle $70 million in pension obligations for its bankrupt subsidiary RG Steel.

In another 2017 case, a federal appeals court ordered Rennert to pay a $213.2 million fine after a jury found him guilty of looting his now-defunct magnesium company, Magnesium Corp of America, to build one of the most expensive homes in the country, a 21-bedroom mansion in New York's Hamptons.

Doe Run also operated a smelter in Herculaneum, Missouri, which was closed when it was found liable under the Missouri Clean Water Law: “Claims for damages for, destruction of, and loss of natural resources and services resulting from the release or threatened release of hazardous substances at or from facilities now or formerly owned and/or operated by Doe Run Resources.”

The judge found Doe Run guilty of improper obstruction of evidence and fined him more than $400,000, which he paid, Schlichter said.

In Doe Run Peru, the court found: “Defendant Rennert is and has been the controlling owner of all of the defendant companies and performs numerous functions therein… At all times relevant here, Defendant Rennert exercises control over the other defendant companies and their subsidiaries by virtue of his direct and indirect ownership.”

Schlichter said if Doe Run does not petition the Supreme Court, the case will go to trial, and that could happen as early as next year.

“As the last 17 years have shown, we are committed to doing whatever it takes, no matter how long it takes, to get justice for these children and their families, and we will see that through to the end,” Schlichter said. “We will not allow this scorched earth policy to stop us from getting compensation for the brain damage these children have suffered.”

Doe Run did not respond to an emailed request for comment.