Settlement

The leader of a Baltimore longshoremen's local calls the settlement of a civil racketeering suit which leaves John Bowers in charge of the 62,000-member International Longshoremen's Association a victory for the union's members."

A NEW LEGAL settlement over home loan fees sends an important message to mortgage lenders and consumers: If a lender routinely charges home buyers for services it did not perform - or cannot document - it could find itself in the crosshairs of state law enforcement authorities, if not the federal government. That point was made resoundingly in a settlement agreement between the Pennsylvania attorney general and a mortgage lender, Home American Credit Inc. The issue was the lender's charge of $150 per loan for an "attorney review fee."

The county government spent $30,000 defending a brutality suit against three police officers before agreeing to a sealed, out-of-court settlement last month, county officials said yesterday."

The NAACP settled a lawsuit yesterday with the Rev. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., the former executive director who claimed he was wrongfully fired from his $200,000-a-year job after controversy over alleged financial improprieties.But details of the settlement were being kept secret yesterday as attorneys, Dr. Chavis and NAACP leaders deferred comment until Monday afternoon when the specifics will be released publicly."All I can say is that the matter has been resolved through mediation," said Robert Barnett, a Washington attorney who was appointed by a judge last month to act as a mediator.

NASHVILLE -- With federal court approval last week of one o the largest financial settlements in a race-discrimination suit, the Shoney's restaurant chain committed itself to a transformation in its hiring and promoting of blacks.Shoney's Inc. will distribute $105 million over the next five years, mostly to about 10,000 blacks who either worked for or were denied employment by the company in the past seven years. Some white employees who were dismissed for not following orders to dismiss blacks will also receive money.

A Maryland District Court judge has dismissed 314 debt collection cases against Maryland residents who were sued by Catonsville-based Sunshine Financial Group. Chief Judge Ben C. Clyburn dismissed the cases on Wednesday under the terms of a settlement announced last week between Sunshine Financial and the Maryland State Collection Agency Licensing Board. The settlement allows the lawsuits, which sought to collect debts, to be re-filed in the future. The judge also ordered that attorney fees will be noted as satisfied on 323 other Sunshine Financial cases that have gone to judgment.

The Maryland Attorney General's office in conjunction with the federal government and 46 other states has reached a $48 million settlement with a Texas drug company that marketed an ointment to treat bedsores even though it wasn't approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Healthpoint Ltd and general partner DFB Pharmaceuticals marketed the drug Xenaderm to nursing homes. The ointment was modeled after a drug made prior to 1962 that the FDA never reviewed. In the 1970s, the FDA determined the principal ingredient in Xenaderm was "less than effective.

The public's applause over the calculated capitulation last week by the Liggett Group, one of the nation's largest cigarette makers, has overshadowed a sobering fact: Thousands of smokers who have pursued the company in court for years stand to receive little under a proposed legal settlement also announced last week.Liggett received wide publicity last week when it struck a deal to resolve claims by 22 state attorneys general. But less widely noticed was that the company and a group of plaintiffs' lawyers also won preliminary approval from a state court judge in Mobile, Ala., for a companion plan to settle all present and future suits by smokers, their survivors, cities, counties and insurers.

PHILADELPHIA -- Peco Energy Co. said it reached a settlement with opponents of its deregulation plans that includes a 10 percent reduction in its electric rates through 2000.The proposed settlement, filed yesterday with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, contains rate reductions that Peco valued at $330 million annually.The Philadelphia-based utility also said that, as part of the agreement, which it expects state regulators to approve by year-end, it would take a one-time write-off of $2 billion.

CHICAGO -- A federal judge yesterday approved a $45.4 million settlement in a class-action suit that charged Archer Daniels Midland Co. and two Japanese companies with fixing prices for lysine, a widely-used protein additive for farm animals.U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur called the settlement "fair, reasonable and adequate," noting that fewer than 2 percent of the plaintiffs objected to the settlement.He said the defendants are not liable for attorneys' fees. The other defendants are Ajinomoto Co. and Kyowa Hakko Ltd.Under the settlement, Decatur, Ill.-based Archer Daniels will pay $25 million and the Japanese companies will pay $10.2 million each.