SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newsline) – Her husband’s group is no longer a member of ours, the California Chamber of Commerce has stated after questions arose whether Judge Kimberly Mueller was able to fairly preside over one of its lawsuits.
A group known as the Council for Education and Research on Toxics has filed more than 100 lawsuits over the chemical acrylamide, arguing its presence in certain products like coffee and French fries requires a may-cause-cancer warning label under California’s Prop 65.
But CalChamber has challenged whether these labels are appropriate. It found a receptive judge in Mueller, who is on the bench in Sacramento federal court.
She ruled earlier this year that it is far from settled science that the naturally occurring chemical causes cancer in humans.
Though the International Agency for Research on Cancer found the signature for acrylamide-related mutations in about a third of tumor genomes in its cancer database, the National Cancer Institute concluded that eating food with the chemical does not increase the risk of cancer.
CERT responded with a motion to disqualify her from the case because her husband, Robert Johnson Slobe, is the president of the North Sacramento Chamber of Commerce. The dq motion said that chamber “touts itself as both a member of CalChamber and as an entity that works closely with CalChamber on advocacy issues.”
On Sept. 3, CalChamber associate general counsel Heather Wallace submitted a declaration to the court that said the North Sacramento chamber was a member when litigation started in 2019 but no longer is.
Slobe is also the president of the North Sacramento Land Company, which operates an almond ranch in Colusa County – “roasted almonds are a significant source of acrylamide,” the motion says
“Thus, there are many connections between Judge Mueller and Plaintiff CalChamber, and financial interests of Judge Mueller’s husband which create conflicts of interest, none of which have been disclosed by Judge Mueller,” the motion says.
“These facts are more than sufficient to lead a reasonable person to conclude that the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned, so disqualification is required.”
In earlier court documents, CalChamber said more than 100 companies have received notices of violation related to acrylamide since it initiated its lawsuit in 2019.
“The costs of Proposition 65 litigation, the one-sided nature of its enforcement regime, and the incentives it provides for enforcement by bounty hunters make it uneconomical — deliberately so — for individual businesses to vindicate their First Amendment rights on a case-by-case basis,” CalChamber wrote.
Though many acrylamide cases await a result, CERT and the plaintiff lawyers it is allied with scored big with two early settlements - $1.25 million from Burger King and $693,500 from McDonald’s.
In 2010, it began its attack on companies that sell coffee, suing Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, 7-Eleven and several others.