Brimer v. Coyne's & Company, Inc., et al.

On December 28, 2004 citizen enforcer Russell Brimer and settling defendant Coyne's & Company, Inc. ("Coyne's") entered into an out-of-court Settlement Agreement, which resolved Brimer's allegations that Coyne's sold certain glass and metal lightcatcher products (also known as suncatchers) containing lead in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.

As part of the settlement, Coyne's agreed not to sell any suncatchers in California unless the suncatchers have Proposition 65 warnings provided or are reformulated as defined in Section 1.0 of the Settlement Agreement to eliminate the presence of lead in the products.

The Settlement Agreement required payments of $11,400, divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which were 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.