The Rhode Island Supreme Court  today unanimously reversed a trial court ruling from 2006 which held three companies which formerly made lead paint and pigment liable for creating a public nuisance.

The High Court's ruling means that the defendants will not be on the hook for as much as $2.4 billion in abatment costs which the State of Rhode Island had been seeking.

The lawsuit was originally filed in 1999 by then-Attorney  General Sheldon Whitehouse, and it was the first of its kind in the country.

But today the Supreme Court said that the state's case, which relied on the legal theory known as public nuisance, failed to show causation.

The state had no immediate word on whether or not it planned to try the case again.