BALTIMORE (AP) — Maryland’s Court of Special Appeals has reversed $2.5 million in lead-paint verdicts against Baltimore’s housing authority.

The court ruled Thursday that the case should never had gone to trial because the plaintiffs, two siblings, waited too long to notify the agency of their claims.

The Daily Record of Baltimore reports that a Baltimore judge let the suit proceed despite the 13-year lag. The suit was filed in 2007.

The verdict had led the plaintiffs’ attorney to seizing housing authority property to pay the judgment.

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