Free Declaration in Support - District Court of California - California

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JULIO J. RAMOS (SBN 189944) Attorney at Law 35 Grove Street, Suite 107 San Francisco, California 94102 Telephone: (415) 948-3015 Facsimile: (415) 469-9787 [email protected] Attorney for Plaintiff Amy Harrington UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION

AMY HARRINGTON, on behalf of herself ) ) and all others similarly situated, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) vs. ) ) MATTEL, INC., a Delaware Corp., and FISHER-PRICE, INC., a Delaware Corp., ) ) and DOES 1 through 100, inclusive, ) ) Defendants. )

CIV. N0. 07-5110 (MJJ) DECLARATION OF JULIO J. RAMOS IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO REMAND Date: December 11, 2007 Time: 9:30 a.m. Dept.: Courtroom 11

I, Julio J. Ramos, declare as follows: 1. I am an attorney licensed to practice law in the State of California and

admitted to the bar of the Northern District of California. The matters stated below are true of my own knowledge, and if called upon to testify, I could and would testify competently to them. 2. My law office is located at 35 Grove Street, Suite 107 San Francisco

California 94102. I have spent 26.00 hours preparing this motion and supporting papers. My billable rate is $375.00 an hour. 3. On August 2, 2007 the United States Consumer Products Safety

Commission (CPSC) issued a press release announcing a massive recall of over 900,000 toy products. The press release specifically identified Mattel Inc. toys from the Dora the Explorer DECLARATION OF JULIO J. RAMOS IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO REMAND

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line, as a hazard because "surface paints on the toys could contain excessive levels of lead. Lead is toxic if ingested by young children and can cause adverse health effects. I downloaded a copy of the press release directly from the CPSC website. A true and correct copy of the CPSC Press Release dated 8/02/07 is attached hereto as Exhibit A to this declaration. 4. The CPSC press release states that the prices for the toys subject to the

recall ranged between $5 and $40 dollars. 5. I have reviewed Mattel Inc.'s website and randomly selected toys listed in

the CPSC press release to confirm the range of prices asserted therein. Consequently, I have confirmed the following prices: Elmo Light Up Musical Pal listed at $9.99, Elmo Tub Sub listed at $8.00, Elmo Boom Box listed at $10.00, Elmo in the Giggle Box listed at $8.00, Shake Giggle & Roll listed at $15.00, Go Diego Go Deep Sea Rescue listed at $9.99, Go Diego Go Talking Rescue listed at $20.00, Giggle Doodler listed at $13.00, Go Diego Go Antarctic Rescue $9.99, and Go Diego Go Mountain Rescue $9.99. 6. Between May and July of 2007 Plaintiff Amy Harrington had purchased in

the State of California, a Dora Talking Pony Palace for her four year old daughter; that toy was listed in the CSPC press release as containing lead based paint. 7. On August 20, 2007 I filed a lawsuit on behalf of Amy Harrington, a

lifelong resident of the City and County of San Francisco against Mattel Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary Fisher-Price, based on California's implied warranty law and Section 17200 of the Unfair Competition Law. No federal claims were asserted and the amount in controversy was alleged as less than $75,000.00. The case is captioned Harrington v. Mattel, Inc. et. al., CGC-07-466376. 8. On September 11, 2007 the lawsuit was served on Defendants. The matter

was designated as complex and assigned to the Complex Litigation Department of Judge John E. Munter on September 27, 2007. 9. On September 12, 2007 Mattel Inc.'s Chairman and CEO, Mr. Robert

Eckert, admitted Mattel's Inc.'s failure to adequately supervise the production of its toy products 2 DECLARATION OF JULIO J. RAMOS IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO REMAND

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in testimony before the United States Senate. I downloaded a copy of Mr. Eckert's testimony directly from Mattel's website. A true and correct copy of the testimony dated 9/12/07 is attached hereto as Exhibit B to this declaration. 10. On October 3, 2007 the Defendants' law firm; Jones Day filed a joint

answer to the complaint on behalf of both Defendants to the instant action. 11. On October 4, 2007 the Defendants jointly filed a joint Notice of Removal

to the Northern District of California. 12. On October 16, 2007 defendant's counsel in a brief jointly filed before the

Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation in MDL. Docket No. 1897 stated that: "Mattel's worldwide product integrity program is likely to be relevant to the various claims in these proceedings, and that program is based at Mattel's offices in El Segundo, California. Far fewer documents and witnesses are located at Fisher-Price's headquarters in the Western District of New York." I obtained a copy of the brief from Deborah Simmons, Jones Day 2727 North Harwood Street Dallas Texas 75201 via Federal Express priority overnight delivery. A true and correct

copy of Defendants Mattel, Inc.'s and Fisher-Price Inc.'s Reply In Support of Motion For § 1407 Transfer of Actions To The Central District of California is attached as Exhibit C to this declaration. 13. On November 2, 2007 during the course of preparing Plaintiff's Motion to

Remand I discovered a governmental report regarding taxpayer costs associated with lead contamination monitoring of children. A 2002 study commissioned by the District Board of Health for Mahoning County Ohio quantified some of the direct costs to taxpayers to screen and treat children for lead poisoning. Essentially, the study found that screening and treating 2,777 children at varying levels of lead levels cost a total of about $124,654. I downloaded a true and

copy of the report from the District Board of Health for Mahoning County Ohio website at http://www.mahoning-health.org/SpecialReportsUpload/311_315.pd. See Public Health Reports, May-June 2005, Vol. 120 attached to this declaration as Exhibit D.

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On October 10, 2005, Mattel announced the consolidation of its domestic

Mattel Girls & Boys Brands and Fisher-Price Brands divisions into one division. The creation of the "Mattel Brands" division, resulted in the consolidation of some management and support functions designed to efficiently leverage Mattel's scale. See Mattel Inc. 10-K excerpt for fiscal year ending December 31, 2006 attached as Exhibit E to this declaration. 15. Mattel was originally incorporated in California in 1948. Its executive

offices are located at 333 Continental Blvd., El Segundo California 90245-5012, telephone number (310) 252-2000. I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct and that this declaration was executed on November 5, 2007 in San Francisco, California.

_____ Julio J. Ramos ___________________ Julio J. Ramos

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