COLUMBUS -- Ohio attorney General Marc Dann is fighting to have a key public-nuisance lead paint litigation case returned to the state court system it was originally filed in.

Defendant company Atlantic-Richfield Co. (ARCO) succeeded last month in having the cases shifted to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio Eastern Division. ARCO also asked for a summary judgment ruling on the question of whether retroactively suing for damages by lead paint applied over 60 years is unconstitutional.

Dann's lead paint lawsuit and another filed by the city of Columbus were previously pending at the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, LNL reported. Many other similar public-nuisance lawsuits were dimissed following an Ohio Supreme Court ruling last year.

But Dann opposed the move and wants the cases remanded to the Franklin County courthouse. He argued that the requirements for removing the case to federal court have not been met. ARCO "failed to establish that it 'acted under' the direction of a federal officer," he wrote in an opposing filing.