Brimer v. South Coast Winery, Inc., et al.

In Brimer v. South Coast Winery, Inc., et al., the San Francisco County Superior Court resolved citizen enforcer Russell Brimer's enforcement action on February 8, 2007. In this matter, Brimer alleged that the defendant, South Coast Winery, Inc. dba The Gift Shop at South Coast ("South Coast"), sold stemware and other glassware with colored artwork on the exterior containing the heavy metal lead in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.

As part of the settlement, South Coast agreed not to sell any stemware or other glassware in California after December 15, 2006, unless the glassware has Proposition 65 warnings provided or contains no more than .06 percent of lead by weight when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies. All glassware offered for sale by South Coast in California after April 1, 2007, shall qualify as reformulated. The warning and reformulation requirements shall remain in place five years; the expiration of Section 2 of the Consent Judgment, however, will not relieve South Coast of its obligation to comply with Proposition 65 requirements. Due to South Coast's prompt cooperation in the settlement proceedings, Brimer agreed to waive a portion of the civil fine that would otherwise be applied.

The Consent Judgment requires settlement payments of $21,500, to be divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which are paid to California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and compensation to citizen enforcer Brimer and his counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest.