Brimer v. ColArt Americas, Inc.

On September 20, 2011, the Alameda County Superior Court entered a Consent Judgment in Brimer v. ColArt Americas, Inc., which resolved citizen enforcer Russell Brimer's allegations that the defendant ColArt Americas, Inc. ("ColArt"), sold cases for art supplies containing the heavy metal lead in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.

As part of the settlement, ColArt agreed not to sell any cases for art supplies in California unless each accessible component of such cases contained less than 100 parts per million of lead content when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies. ColArt also agreed to place Proposition 65 warnings on the cases it did not reformulate. Should ColArt comply by these heightened standards and eliminate the need for Proposition 65 warnings on the cases by June 1, 2011, Brimer agreed to credit a portion of the civil fine that would otherwise be applied.

The Consent Judgment requires settlement payments of $53,250, divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which are paid to California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and compensation to whistleblower Brimer and his counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest.