Brimer v. Delivery Agent, Inc., et al.

On August 5, 2008, the San Francisco County Superior Court entered a Consent Judgment in Brimer v. Delivery Agent, Inc., which resolved citizen enforcer Russell Brimer's allegations that the defendant Delivery Agent, Inc. ("Delivery") sold ceramic mugs and other ceramic containers with colored artwork containing the heavy metal lead and cadmium on the exterior in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.

As part of the settlement, Delivery agreed not to sell any ceramicware in California after December 15, 2006, unless the ceramicware is sold with Proposition 65 warnings or contains no more than .99 parts per million of lead and no more than 7.92 parts per million of cadmium when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies. Delivery committed to use its best efforts to ensure that all of its ceramicware sold in California after March 1, 2007, shall qualify as reformulated. Due to Delivery's prompt cooperation and commitment to reformulation, Brimer agreed to waive a portion of the civil fine. Should Delivery provide written certification that it has complied with reformulation standards by March 1, 2007, Brimer agreed to waive an additional portion of the civil fine.

The Consent Judgment requires settlement payments of $52,000, to be 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.