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To accomplish these goals, the settlement document did not
require any specific allocation to specific plaintiffs but left
allocation and distribution up to plaintiffs' counsel. Paragraph
2(c) of the settlement agreement provides as follows:
(c) Without reference to and without affecting
the allocation or distribution of the Settlement
Payment among the various parties plaintiff, the
Settlement Payment [$20 million] shall be attributed as
follows:
(i) Six Hundred Seventy-one Thousand
Thirty-Four Dollars ($671,034.00) shall be
attributed to the so-called "direct" cause of
action in the Milk Producers Complaint for
negligent interference with contractual
relationship (the fourth cause of action);
and
(ii) Nineteen Million Three Hundred
Twenty-eight Thousand Nine Hundred Sixty-six
Dollars ($19,328,966.00) shall be attributed
to the so-called "direct" cause of action in
the Milk Producers complaint for negligent
infliction of emotional distress (the eighth
cause of action);
(iii) Nothing shall be attributed to
any of the other causes of action in the Milk
Producers Complaint or to any cause of action
in the Danish Creamery complaint.
[Emphasis added.]
Neither the Bank Defendants nor the milk producers wanted to
settle on any basis relating to the contracts between Knudsen and
the milk producers. The banks consistently denied any liability
on the contracts, and plaintiffs wanted to retain their direct
claims for nonpayment of milk against the bankruptcy estate.
Moreover, such a settlement would have required the bankruptcy
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