Claremont orders to police on race facts overturned.

Union representing officers of the Claremont Police Department has succeeded in overturning city policy designed to curb racial profiling.

A year ago, Claremont enacted rules requiring officers to write down the ethnicity or their perception of the race of drivers they stopped but did not arrest or ticket. The purpose is to monitor officers who might be engaged in racial profiling, in which minorities are singled out more than the population at large.

The Claremont Police Officers Association asked Los Angeles Superior Court to stop the regulation, approved by city officials without the consent of the union. The court denied the request, but a three-judge panel in 2nd Appellate District reversed Oct. 9.

"An officer could be accused of racial profiling and subjected to disciplinary action, denial of promotion or other adverse action based in part on the information collected under the new policy," wrote Associate Justice Walter Croskey in the ruling.

Peter Eliasberg, managing attorney of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which filed a brief in the case, called the ruling a setback for cities trying to reduce racial profiling in their police departments.

Richard Kreisler, a partner at Liebert Cassidy Whitmore PC representing the City of Claremont, could not say whether he plans to appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court. Dieter Dammeier, a partner at Lackie & Dammeier LLP, representing the union, did not return phone calls.

To the Dogs

An L.A.-based distributor of dog and cat foods won more than $318,000 in damages from a manufacturer that supplied it with moldy dog food.

Natural Balance Pet Foods Inc., co-founded by actor Dick Van Patten, sued New York's Chenango Valley Pet Foods Inc. in July 2001 for "mold-related losses" that began in October 1999, according to a Sept. 30 ruling in 2nd Appellate District.

Natural Balance recalled much of the food, but not before the Israeli Department of Agriculture banned its products. A regular Israeli customer, who ordered two 20-foot-long containers of dog food per month, demanded reimbursement for sales and marketing costs, the ruling says.

A Los Angeles jury awarded Natural Balance $281,345 in damages, plus expert witness fees and prejudgment interest. The three-judge panel, on appeal, affirmed all but the prejudgment interest.

Natural Balance attorney, Brian Neill, a partner at Zinder and Park PC in North Hollywood, said the damages relate to lost profits between August 2000 and August 2002.

Jim Loveder, a partner at Howard Loveder Strickroth & Parker LLP in Santa Ana, and the attorney for Chenango, said the actual damages came closer to $50,000 or $60,000.

Staff reporter Amanda Bronstad can be reached at [phone] ext. 225, or at [e-mail].