Englander v. Skyline Imports, LLC

Citizen enforcer Peter Englander’s allegations against settling party Skyline Imports, LLC (“Skyline”) were resolved on November 6, 2013, when the parties entered into an out-of-court Settlement Agreement.  In this matter, Englander alleged that Skyline sold padded upholstered furniture such as chairs with polyurethane foam containing the flame retardant 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, Skyline agreed not to sell any furniture in California after December 31, 2013, unless the furniture contains no more than 25 parts per million of TDCPP in any accessible component when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies or has Proposition 65 warnings provided.  Additionally, Skyline agreed to notify its vendors of the reformulation standards by October 30, 2013, and instruct them to provide furniture that complies with these standards expeditiously.  Should Skyline provide written certification that all furniture sold in California after November 1, 2013 qualifies as reformulated, Englander agreed to waive a portion of the civil fine that would otherwise be applied.  Additionally, Englander provided a credit for extending the breadth of reformulation, among other credits available, if Skyline should provide written certification that all furniture sold in California after March 31, 2014, contains no detectable amounts of tris(2,3-dibromopropyl)phosphate (“TDBPP”) in addition to satisfying the TDCPP requirement.

The Settlement Agreement requires settlement payments of $83,000, 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.