Defendants have agreed to pay a total of $57 million (the “Settlement Payment”) to the Class. This money will be paid into a Qualified Settlement Fund and then distributed in gross to certain of the Settlement Class Members in five annual installments, following final approval of the Class Settlement by the Court.
A. Which Settlement Class Members will receive payment?
Every Settlement Class Member’s family is eligible to receive payments from the Qualified Settlement Fund, but not every individual Settlement Class Member is eligible to receive payments.
Every Settlement Class Member is either an MCIC Settlement Beneficiary or a Surviving Family Member of an MCIC Settlement Beneficiary (or an estate representative of the foregoing).
Only MCIC Settlement Beneficiaries are eligible to receive payments from the Qualified Settlement Fund. If you are a Surviving Family Member, you personally will not be the member of your family who receives the settlement checks. However, so long as the MCIC Settlement Beneficiary with whom you are associated does not opt out of the Class Settlement, your family will be compensated.
B. Why are Surviving Family Members not eligible for their own payment?
Surviving Family Members are not eligible for separate payment because the MCIC Settlement Agreement provided payment for principal asbestos victims only, and not for family members who released derivative claims such as loss of consortium and wrongful death in consideration of an MCIC Settlement Beneficiary’s payment.
C. The MCIC Settlement Beneficiary’s Expected Payment Subgroup
For the purposes of receiving a share of the Settlement Payment, MCIC Settlement Beneficiaries will be divided into the following four subgroups, corresponding to the disease categories included in the MCIC Settlement Agreement:
For the purposes of receiving a share of the Settlement Payment, MCIC Settlement Beneficiaries will be divided into the following four subgroups, corresponding to the disease categories included in the MCIC Settlement Agreement:
- Subgroup A includes all MCIC Settlement Beneficiaries who participated in the 1994 settlement as a result of their non-malignant condition (e.g., asbestos lung disease).
- Subgroup B includes all MCIC Settlement Beneficiaries who participated in the 1994 settlement as a result of their cancer other than lung cancer.
- Subgroup C includes all MCIC Settlement Beneficiaries who participated in the 1994 settlement as a result of their lung cancer.
- Subgroup D includes all MCIC Settlement Beneficiaries who were participated in the 1994 settlement as a result of their mesothelioma.
According to Defendants’ records, the MCIC Settlement Beneficiary with whom you are associated is identified as a member of the Subgroup that is listed in the Notice mailing you received, for purposes of receiving payments from the Settlement Fund.
This is because Defendants’ records show that the MCIC Settlement Beneficiary in your family was an MCIC Settlement Beneficiary as a result of that specific disease category.
We understand that the asbestos disease from which the MCIC Settlement Beneficiary suffered may have progressed since the time of the 1994 MCIC Settlement Agreement. However, that is not relevant for purposes of this Class Settlement. MCIC Settlement Beneficiaries are eligible for payments based on their disease category at the time of the MCIC Settlement Agreement. That is what the MCIC Settlement Agreement requires.
D. Approximate Payment to Each MCIC Settlement Beneficiary
Every MCIC Settlement Beneficiary within each Subgroup will receive a pro rata share of the Settlement Payment based on their injury category at the time of the MCIC Settlement Agreement. MCIC and its insurers paid the following amounts to the beneficiaries of the MCIC Settlement Agreement, based on disease category:
| Disease Category per MCIC Settlement Agreement | 1994 Payment per Case |
| Non-Malignancies (e.g., asbestos lung disease) | $1,000.00 |
| Other Cancers | $1,500.00 |
| Lung Cancer | $4,250.00 |
| Mesothelioma | $9,500.00 |
In addition to what they received in 1994, and based on the pro rata schedule established in the MCIC Settlement Agreement, each MCIC Settlement Beneficiary can expect to receive approximately the following amounts, which are net of attorneys’ fees and expenses that the Court will be asked to approve, administrative costs, and incentive fees to the Class Representatives:
| Disease Category per MCIC Settlement Agreement | Subgroup in this Class Settlement | Total Class Settlement Payment per Settlement Class Member |
| Non-Malignancies (e.g., asbestos lung disease) | A | $3,340.51 |
| Other Cancer | B | $5,010.76 |
| Lung Cancers | C | $14,197.15 |
| Mesothelioma | D | $31,734.80 |
These amounts will be divided into five annual Payment Installments, the first of which is largest. Thus, each MCIC Settlement Beneficiary can expect to receive five payments in total, in approximately the following amounts:
| Subgroup | Payment 1 | Payment 2 | Payment 3 | Payment 4 | Payment 5 |
| A | $846.71 | $623.45 | $623.45 | $623.45 | $623.45 |
| B | $1,270.04 | $935.18 | $935.18 | $935.18 | $935.18 |
| C | $3,598.43 | $2,649.68 | $2,649.68 | $2,649.68 | $2,649.68 |
| D | $8,043.56 | $5,922.81 | $5,922.81 | $5,922.81 | $5,922.81 |
These amounts are estimates only. Because some Class Members may opt out of the Class Settlement, and because the costs of administration are not yet final, these dollar amounts may be adjusted up or down.
E. Additional Amounts to be Paid from the Settlement Fund
The following costs and expenses will also be paid from the $57 million Qualified Settlement Fund:
I. Counsel Fees and Expenses
Class Counsel have prosecuted the Case for more than three years without receiving any attorneys’ fees, and without any assurance of receiving attorneys’ fees, and also have advanced all of the costs necessary to prosecute the Case. In these circumstances, Class Counsel will ask the Court to award them 33% of the gross Qualified Settlement Fund as attorneys’ fees, plus reimbursement of out-of-pocket costs. The requested fee award is typical of many cases in which plaintiffs’ firms represent their clients on a contingency basis. Counsel fees and expenses are subject to Court approval.
II. Payment of Administrative Costs of the Class Settlement
All costs associated with the administration of the Class Settlement will be paid from the Qualified Settlement Fund. Given the thousands of members of the Class, and the cost, in some instances, associated with locating members with whom the Angelos Law Firm has not communicated recently, the Settlement Administration Expenses are estimated to total at least $500,000.
III. Incentive Payment for Class Representatives
Class Counsel will seek an incentive payment of $10,000 for each of the three Class Representatives—Ms. Clark, Mr. Loverde, and the McCarthys—to compensate them for the substantial time they devoted to the pursuit of this Case. The incentive payments ($30,000 in the aggregate) will be funded from the Qualified Settlement Fund and will be paid in five equal installments over the course of five years. The incentive payments are subject to Court approval.
F. Remaining Funds / Cy Pres
The Settlement Agreement recognizes and accounts for the possibility that some Settlement Class Members cannot be located or have died, and therefore there may be some money remaining in the Qualified Settlement Fund each year after all Settlement Class Members who can be located are paid. If any money is remaining in the Qualified Settlement Fund in a given year following that year’s payment to all MCIC Settlement Beneficiaries in the Settlement Class, then the balance will be paid into a Cy Pres Fund that will distribute monies annually to not-for-profit organizations that serve the greater Baltimore community where many of the MCIC Settlement Beneficiaries and Surviving Family Members once lived or still live today.
With the approval of the Court, the Cy Pres Fund will be donated on an annual basis to the following entities, in the following percentages:
(a) 23.5% to the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law for purposes of sponsoring the clinical law program (which provides law students with hands-on experience in a variety of crucial legal fields);
(b) 23.5% to the University of Baltimore School of Law for purposes of sponsoring the Fannie Angelos Program for Academic Excellence, which serves underrepresented student populations;
(c) 23.5% to Public Justice Center, Inc., which advocates on behalf of social justice causes;
(d)23.5% to Associated Catholic Charities Inc., for use by the Esperanza Center (an immigration law clinic); and
(e) 6% to Franciscan Center, Inc., which provides free meals and other services to Baltimoreans in need.