Leeman v. Florida Pneumatic Manufacturing Company

The parties executed an out-of-court Settlement Agreement on January 30, 2014, which resolved the allegations that whistleblower Whitney R. Leeman, Ph.D., made against settling party Florida Pneumatic Manufacturing Corporation (“Florida Pneumatic”).  In this matter, Leeman alleged that Florida Pneumatic sold shop stools with vinyl seats 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, Florida Pneumatic agreed not to sell any shop stools in California unless the shop stools contain less than 1,000 parts per million of DEHP, butyl benzyl phthalate (“BBP”), and di-n-butyl phthalate (“DBP”) in any accessible component when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies or have Proposition 65 warnings provided.  Additionally, by March 1, 2014, Florida Pneumatic agreed to notify its vendors of the reformulation standards and instruct them to provide shop stools that comply with these standards expeditiously.  Should Florida Pneumatic provide written certification that it has eliminated the need for Proposition 65 warnings by September 15, 2014, Leeman agreed to waive a portion of the civil fine that would otherwise be applied. 

The Settlement Agreement requires settlement payments of $38,500, 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.