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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Ind. decisions - "$29M deal reached in IMI price-fixing lawsuit: IMI settlement is the biggest yet in concrete scheme"

Jeff Swiatek of the Indianapolis Star reports today that:

Plaintiffs in a concrete price-fixing lawsuit in Central Indiana have landed their largest settlement yet.

Irving Materials, a Greenfield-based construction materials supplier, has agreed to pay $29 million to settle charges that it conspired with six other concrete firms to overcharge customers. IMI was the largest firm among the original defendants and had the biggest market share.

The settlement allows IMI to avoid a class-action trial set for next summer. Two companies are now left as defendants. Three others have settled for a combined $24 million.

IMI's settlement must be approved by a federal judge before it's official. It would boost the amount of settlement money paid by the companies in the case to $53 million.

"This is an historic settlement. We could not be more thrilled," Irwin Levin, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said Tuesday.

The settlement funds, minus legal fees and other costs, will be paid to a court-approved class of about 5,000 individuals and companies that bought $700 million of ready-mixed concrete from the seven companies during the four years of the conspiracy, 2000 to 2004. Of the $24 million in settlements, attorney fees and other costs have eaten up $8 million. The fees and costs for the IMI settlement are not known.

Levin, an attorney for the Indianapolis firm Cohen & Malad, said the settlements so far, counting IMI, amount to "one of the highest percentage recoveries in civil antitrust cases in history." * * *

The companies that have not settled are Builder's Concrete & Supply and Beaver Materials Corp.

Those that settled earlier are American Concrete Co., Shelby Gravel and Southfield Corp. Another defendant, Hughey Inc., went bankrupt.

The U.S. Justice Department pursued criminal charges against the concrete companies after an FBI investigation.

In 2005, the government hit IMI with what was then the largest antitrust fine in U.S. history, $29 million, for its role in the conspiracy that illegally drove up the price of concrete sold in Central Indiana.

The Web site concreteantitrustsettlement.com contains information for plaintiffs and others about the case.

A side-bar to the story sets out a "Timeline of price-fixing scheme."

The ILB has a number of earlier entries on this case, including: Sept. 10, 2009, July 28, 2008, May 20, 2006.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 28, 2009 05:56 PM
Posted to Ind Fed D.Ct. Decisions