DiPirro v. Daiwa Corporation and Daiwa Seiko, Inc.

Posted: 03/08/2001  browse the case archive

On March 8, 2001, Daiwa Corporation and affiliated company Daiwa Seiko, Inc. (collectively “Daiwa”) opted into a Supplemental Consent Judgment to resolve citizen enforcer Michael DiPirro’s allegations that Daiwa and fourteen other defendants sold fishing tackle containing the heavy metal lead in California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.  The San Francisco County Superior Court entered a Supplemental Consent Judgment in DiPirro v. Western-Hoegee Company, et al. on April 5, 2001.  Previously, on August 30, 2000, the San Francisco Superior Court entered a Consent Judgment resolving DiPirro’s allegations that Western-Hoegee and seventy-eight other defendants manufactured, distributed, or sold fishing tackle products containing the heavy metal lead in the State of California without providing the requisite Proposition 65  health hazard warnings.

The Supplemental Consent Judgment prohibits Daiwa and the other defendants from selling any fishing tackle products in California after May 1, 2001, unless Proposition 65 warnings are provided in conformity with those described in Section 2.2 of the Consent Judgment.  Should the defendants eliminate the sale of uncoated lead terminal tackle to people under the age of sixteen and no longer sell other products in California, thereby implementing a lead reduction policy to reduce lead exposure in California from fishing tackle, DiPirro agreed to waive a portion of the civil fine that would otherwise be applied.

The Settlement Agreements require settlement payments of $1,281,975, divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which are paid to California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and compensation to whistleblower DiPirro and his counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest. 

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