Englander v. Corinthian, Inc.

Citizen enforcer Peter Englander’s allegations against defendant Corinthian, Inc. (“Corinthian”) were resolved on October 7, 2013, when the parties executed a Consent Judgment.  In this matter, Englander alleged that Corinthian sold upholstered accent chairs with foam padding containing tris(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate (“TDCPP”) in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.

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

The Consent Judgment requires settlement payments of $130,000, divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which are paid to California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and compensation to whistleblower Englander and his counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest.