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applied to all plaintiffs who were Attorney Bidart's clients.
The judge stated he would approve the settlement, which was
to be reduced to writing, and that negotiations on the language
would begin the next night.
Roll, the banks' lawyer, prepared the first draft of the
settlement agreement. The Bank Defendants' concern was twofold:
That all claims be released and that none of the money being paid
could fairly be said to arise out of gross negligence or willful
misconduct. That was because the banks wanted to preserve a
right to indemnification by Knudsen (now KF Dairies) set out in
the loan and security agreements that financed the Foremost
purchase. Although Knudsen was bankrupt, the banks were secured
creditors and hoped to recoup as much as possible of their
payment to the milk producers. This left nine possible causes of
action on which to structure a settlement; i.e., Nos. 2, 4, 6, 8,
12, 13, 14, 16, and 18.
Roll was familiar with evidence, in the form of depositions
and answers to written interrogatories, of particularized
emotional distress suffered by several dozen milk Producer
plaintiffs.
In focusing on the emotional distress issue, the Bank
Defendants were also heavily influenced by an earlier off-the-
record conversation with Judge Tenner, who was actively involved
in the settlement talks. The banks' consistent position was that
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