Consumer Advocacy Group, Inc. v. Exxon Mobil Corp.

Introduction

In 1986, the electorate passed Proposition 65, the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986. It is now codified in Health and Safety Code sections 25249.5-25249.13. Section 25249.5 provides, in pertinent part: “No person in the course of doing business shall knowingly discharge or release a chemical known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity into water or onto or into land where such chemical passes or probably will pass into any source of drinking water . . . .” The initiative provides both for fines and injunctive relief. Subdivision (b) of section 25249.7 provides that anyone who has violated section 25249.5 “shall be liable for a civil penalty not to exceed $2,500 per day for each such violation in addition to any other penalty established by law.” Subdivision (a) of section 25249.7 provides that “[a]ny person that violates or threatens to violate Section 25249.5 . . . may be enjoined in any court of competent jurisdiction.”

This appeal comes to us in the form of a stipulated judgment in which the parties agreed to the pertinent facts in order to expedite appellate review of an important question of law. (See, e.g., Norgart…