Settlements of note
The courts have been busy acting upon cases that affect Maine businesses. Here are some recent highlights:
The federal government paid $81.7 million to the Maine Yankee Atomic Power Co. to settle a 14-year-old court case seeking reimbursement of the company's costs to store spent nuclear fuel at its decommissioned reactor site in Wiscasset between 1998 and 2002. Damages of $38.3 million also have been paid to Yankee Atomic Electric Co. and $39.7 million to Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Co., which joined Maine Yankee in Phase 1 of continuing litigation against the Department of Energy over spent fuel. Based on regulatory agreements, the funds remaining after payment of federal and state taxes will be used for the benefit of ratepayers.
Maine will receive $500,000 as part of a national settlement involving a Jacksonville, Fla.-based mortgage processor accused of using an automated loan approval practice called “robo-signing.” As a result of the settlement, Lender Processing Services Inc. will pay a total of $120.6 million to 45 states, according to a press release from Janet Mills, Maine's attorney general. Mills said funds from the settlement will be used to support housing counselors to help Maine homeowners avoid foreclosure.
Maine is joining the U.S. Department of Justice, 15 other states and the District of Columbia in a civil lawsuit against the Standard & Poor's credit rating agency. The lawsuit alleges the rating service engaged in unfair and deceptive practices in the rating of certain securities, which the suit claims were at the heart of the nation's financial crisis, according to a release from Mill's office. The petitioners are seeking civil penalties, a court order to stop and/or reform certain company practices and the disgorgement of ill-gotten profits that could total hundreds of millions of dollars.
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