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As we do every year, CalBizLit has reviewed all of the 2019 Proposition 65 settlements, which are posted on the Attorney General’s web site. Today, we will be posting summaries of the court approved consent judgment settlements. In the next few days, we will do the same thing as to out of court settlements.
Almost all of the consent judgment settlements involving products and alleged failure to warn of chemical exposure include the following elements:
• Agreement by the defendant, and a court order, to either reformulate a product category or to provide warnings that comply with the Office of Environmental Health Hazzard Assessment’s (“OEHHA’s”) “Safe Harbor Warning Regulations.”
• Payment by the defendant of an agreed penalty amount, with 25% going to the plaintiff and 75% to OEHHA, as required by Proposition 65; and
• Payment by the defendant of the plaintiff attorney’s fee and cost claim, in an amount agreed to by the parties.
Our calculation of the number of settlement judgments is slightly different than the Attorney General’s. That office’s calculation is 284, we calculate 281. The total amount of settlement payments for 2019 in court approved settlements was $17,059,870, meaning that the average payment per settlement was $60,711. Of the $17 million+, $3,003,490 was for penalties, $1,572,592 was for “additional settlement payments” which must meet certain requirements, must be approved by the Court, and need to be shared with OEHHA. And $12,483,788, or more than 73% of the total settlement amounts went to attorneys’ fees and costs. The entitlement to attorneys’ fees does not appear in Proposition 65, but is permitted under California Code of Civil Procedure section 1021.5, permitting an award of attorney’s fees to attorneys prevailing in a matter serving the public interest. Proposition 65 having been enacted by the voters in 1986, it is generally deemed by the courts to serve the public interest.
The following chart shows the number of consent judgment settlements, average amount of settlement, highest and lowest settlement for 18 of California’s Proposition 65 Plaintiffs (also known as “Private Party Enforcers”):
To see information on the 2019 settlements by other plaintiffs, click right below:
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