Timmins v. Unilever United States, Inc.

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. California
DecidedJune 4, 2025
Docket2:24-cv-03017
StatusUnknown

This text of Timmins v. Unilever United States, Inc. (Timmins v. Unilever United States, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Timmins v. Unilever United States, Inc., (E.D. Cal. 2025).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 6 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 7 8 LACEY TIMMINS, No. 2:24-cv-03017-DJC-JDP 9 Plaintiff, 10 v. ORDER DENYING DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO DISMISS 11 UNILEVER UNITED STATES, INC., a Delaware corporation, 12 Defendant. 13 14 Plaintiff purchased baby petroleum jelly advertised as hypoallergenic. She later 15 learned the jelly contained fragrance, which she alleges is a known allergen. Plaintiff 16 brought state law claims against Defendant for false advertisement, 17 misrepresentation, and violation of warranty. Defendant moves to dismiss all claims, 18 arguing that Plaintiff’s allegations are insufficient. Principally, Defendant argues that 19 the term hypoallergenic on the front label was sufficiently vague such that Plaintiff 20 should have looked to the back label for additional information. The Court disagrees 21 and DENIES Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss (ECF No. 8). 22 BACKGROUND 23 In 2023, Lacey Timmins (“Plaintiff”) purchased Unilever United States Inc.’s 24 (“Defendant”) Vaseline brand Baby Healing Jelly (“the Product”) to alleviate her son’s 25 eczema and diaper rash. (Compl. ¶¶ 3, 7, ECF No. 1.) Before purchasing the Product, 26 she saw that the front label represented the Product as “hypoallergenic.” (Id. ¶ 8.) 27 Plaintiff alleges that a reasonable consumer understands the term “hypoallergenic” to 28 mean “a product [that] is specifically formulated to minimize the risk of allergic 1 reactions and is free from common allergens.” (Id. ¶ 5.) Plaintiff alleges that the 2 Product’s back label lists “fragrance” as an “inactive ingredient.” (Id. ¶ 23.) Because 3 Plaintiff alleges that “fragrance” is a common allergen, she maintains that Defendant’s 4 representation of “hypoallergenic” was false and misleading. (Id. ¶¶ 24–25.) 5 Plaintiff filed her complaint (“the Complaint”), bringing seven claims on behalf 6 of a putative class: (1) violations of California’s Unfair Competition Law (“UCL”); (2) 7 violations of California’s False Advertising Law (“FAL”); (3) violations of California’s 8 Consumer Legal Remedies Act (“CLRA”); (4) breach of implied warranty; (5) breach of 9 express warranty; (6) unjust enrichment; and (7) fraud by omission/ intentional 10 misrepresentation. (Id. ¶¶ 74–145.) Defendant now moves to dismiss all claims for the 11 reasons analyzed below.1 (Mot., ECF No. 8.) The matter is fully briefed and was 12 submitted without oral argument pursuant to Local Rule 230(g). (ECF No. 15.) 13 LEGAL STANDARD 14 A Rule 12(b)(6) motion challenges the sufficiency of a complaint for “failure to 15 state a claim upon which relief can be granted.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). “To survive a 16 motion to dismiss [under 12(b)(6)], a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, 17 accepted as true, to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Ashcroft v. 18 Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (internal quotations and citation omitted). Plausibility 19 requires “factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that 20 the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Id. While “detailed factual 21 allegations” are unnecessary, the complaint must allege more than “[t]hreadbare 22 recitals of the elements of a cause of action, supported by mere conclusory 23 statements.” Id. Conclusory allegations are not to be considered in the plausibility 24 analysis. Id. at 679. 25 1 Defendant requests the Court take judicial notice of the complaint that Plaintiff filed in the related 26 case, Lacey Timmins v. Walmart, Inc., 2:24-cv-02960-DJC-JDP (E.D. Cal.). (Request for Judicial Notice, ECF No. 9.) A court may take notice of another court proceeding if it has “a direct relation to matters at 27 issue.” Trigueros v. Adams, 658 F.3d 983, 987 (9th Cir. 2011) (citation omitted). Because the other court proceeding has a direct relation, and because the request is unopposed, the Court grants 28 Defendant’s request. 1 DISCUSSION 2 I. Rule 9(b) 3 Defendant contends that Plaintiff fails to satisfy Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4 9(b). (Mot. at 9–10.) Allegations based in fraud “must be accompanied by ‘the who, 5 what, when, where, and how’ of the misconduct charged.” Kearns v. Ford Motor Co., 6 567 F.3d 1120, 1124 (9th Cir. 2009) (citation omitted). “To comply with Rule 9(b), 7 allegations of fraud must be specific enough to give defendants notice of the 8 particular misconduct which is alleged to constitute the fraud charged so that they 9 can defend against the charge and not just deny that they have done anything 10 wrong.” Swartz v. KPMG LLP, 476 F.3d 756, 764 (9th Cir. 2007) (cleaned up). 11 Plaintiff sufficiently alleges the “who, what, when, where, and how” of the 12 misconduct charged. See Kearns, 567 F.3d at 1124 (citation omitted). The “who” is 13 Defendant. (Compl. ¶ 3.) The “what” is the Product, specifically the front label’s 14 representation that it is “hypoallergenic.” (Id. ¶¶ 3–4.) The “where” is Defendant’s 15 stores where the Product is sold. (Id. ¶ 64.) The “when” is sometime in 2023 or, as 16 Plaintiff defines the class, every transaction since November 1, 2020. (Id. ¶¶ 7, 64.) 17 The “how” is that the Product contains fragrance, which is a common allergen, and 18 therefore the Product is allegedly not “hypoallergenic” as advertised. (Id. ¶ 4.) 19 Defendant argues that Plaintiff has not sufficiently pled the “when,” “what,” or 20 “how” of the alleged fraud. (Mot. at 9–10.) Regarding the “when,” Defendant 21 contends Plaintiff’s allegation of purchasing the Product “in 2023” is not specific 22 enough. (Id. at 10 (citing Compl. ¶ 7).) To support its argument, Defendant relies on 23 Buckley v. BMW North America, where the district court held that plaintiff’s allegation 24 of “the middle of September” was not precise enough because their allegations 25 concerned representations made by the defendant’s sales agents. Buckley v. BMW N. 26 Am., No. CV 19-1255-MWF-SS, 2020 WL 3802905, at *2 (C.D. Cal. Mar. 9, 2020). The 27 Buckley court held that, to prepare an adequate answer, the defendant needed more 28 information to determine the identity of the sale agents and therefore be on notice of 1 the misconduct alleged. Id. at *11. However, Buckley is distinct from the present 2 action because, while the defendant there needed more precise information to 3 identify the transaction where the alleged fraud occurred, Defendant here has not 4 shown that it needs further details of the charged misconduct. Defendant fails to 5 explain how it is unable to answer the Complaint without more specificity as to when 6 Plaintiff purchased the Product in 2023. As Plaintiff alleges, and the Court accepts as 7 true for purposes of this motion, the Product’s packaging has been consistent for the 8 last four years, which means the label has stayed the same since November 1, 2020. 9 (Compl. ¶ 33.) 10 Regarding the “what” and “how” of the fraud, Defendant argues Plaintiff must 11 allege what she believed “hypoallergenic” to mean and how she came to learn that 12 the Product was not free of common allergens. (Mot. at 10.) Defendant fails to 13 explain why Plaintiff’s knowledge of the term “hypoallergenic” is necessary to put it 14 on notice of the alleged fraud. Likewise, Defendant fails to explain why it needs to 15 know when Plaintiff learned that the Product was not free of common allergens. 16 Defendant is on notice of the charged misconduct without such allegations.

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Bluebook (online)
Timmins v. Unilever United States, Inc., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/timmins-v-unilever-united-states-inc-caed-2025.