The Ohio Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday regarding whether insurers have a duty to indemnify Sherwin-Williams Co. after it and others were held liable in underlying California litigation and ordered to pay $409 million into a government-administered lead paint abatement fund.

The case came before the Ohio Supreme Court on appeal by certain underwriters at Lloyd's of London after the state's Eighth District Court of Appeals denied summary judgment to the insurers. The majority of the state appellate court held that Sherwin-Williams' commercial general liability policies, which cover "damages" for specific property and bodily injury that the insured neither expected nor intended, could cover the underlying public-nuisance claims brought by California public entities as early as 2000.