A California court judgment used an “avant-garde form of public-nuisance law,” leaving three lead paint companies stuck with hundreds of millions of dollars in abatement costs.

That’s according to the Washington Legal Foundation’s amicus brief, filed on Wednesday, in support of a petition before the U.S. Supreme Court to review a 2014 judgment against Sherwin-Williams Co., Conagra Grocery Products Co. and NL Industries Inc. The WLF said those three companies were “stuck with the bill” that Sherwin-Williams estimated to be between $409 million and $730 million.