Leeman v. Dutro Company

On May 29, 2014, the parties executed an out-of-court Settlement Agreement, which resolved the allegations that whistleblower Whitney R. Leeman, Ph.D., made against settling party Dutro Company (“Dutro”).  In this matter, Leeman alleged that Dutro sold hand trucks with vinyl/PVC grips containing the phthalate chemical di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (“DEHP”) in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.

As part of the settlement, Dutro agreed not to sell any hand trucks in California after June 15, 2014, unless the hand trucks contain no more than 1,000 parts per million of DEHP in any accessible component when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies.  Should Dutro provide written certification by October 15, 2014, that all hand trucks qualify as reformulated or have been labeled with Proposition 65 warnings pursuant to Section 2.2, Leeman agreed to waive a portion of the civil fine that would otherwise be applied. 

The Settlement Agreement requires settlement payments of $24,500, divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which are paid to California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and compensation to citizen enforcer Leeman and her counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest.