Englander and Vinocur v. Taymor Industries U.S.A., Inc. and Taymor Industries Ltd.

Citizen enforcers Laurence Vinocur and Peter Englander’s allegations against defendants Taymor Industries U.S.A., Inc. and Taymor Industries Ltd. (collectively “Taymor”) were resolved on October 8, 2013, when the parties executed a Consent Judgment.  In this matter, Englander and Vinocur alleged that Taymor sold upholstered benches with padding containing tris(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate (“TDCPP”), tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (“TCEP”) and/or di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (“DEHP”) in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.

As part of the settlement, Taymor agreed not to sell any benches in California after March 31, 2014, unless the benches contain no more than 25 parts per million each of TDCPP and TCEP and no more than 1,000 parts per million of DEHP, DBP, and BBP when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies. Additionally, Taymor agreed to provide its vendors with the reformulation standards by October 15, 2013, and instruct them to provide benches that comply expeditiously.  Benches currently existing in Taymor’s inventory may be sold with Proposition 65 warnings provided.  Should Taymor provide written certification that all benches sold in California after November 1, 2013 qualify as reformulated, Vinocur and Englander agreed to waive a portion of the civil fine.  Additionally, Vinocur and Englander provided a credit for extending reformulation, among other credits available, if Taymor should provide written certification that all benches sold in California also contain no more  than 25 parts per million of tris(2,3-dibromopropyl) phosphate (“TDBPP”) by March 15, 2014.

The Consent Judgment requires settlement payments of $93,000, divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which are paid to California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and compensation to whistleblowers Vinocur and Englander and their counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest.