Cite as: 527 U. S. 815 (1999)
Breyer, J., dissenting
who, for the most part, had not yet sued or settled with Fibreboard as of August 1993. The negotiating parties estimated that Fibreboard faced approximately 186,000 of these future claims. See App. to Pet. for Cert. 321a; cf. AO Statistics, Table C2-A (total number of all civil cases filed in federal district courts in 1998 was 252,994). Although the District Court was unable to give a precise figure, see App. to Pet. for Cert. 356a-357a, there is no doubt that a realistic assessment of the value of these claims far exceeds Fibreboard's total net worth.
But, as of 1993, one potentially short-lived additional asset promised potential claimants a greater recovery. That asset consisted of two insurance policies, one issued by Continental Casualty, the other by Pacific Indemnity. If the policies were valid (i. e., if they covered most of the relevant claims), they were worth several billion dollars; but if they were invalid, this asset was worth nothing. At that time, a separate case brought by Fibreboard against the insurance companies in California state court seemed likely to resolve the value of the policies in the near future. That separate litigation had a settlement value for the insurance companies. At the time the parties were negotiating, prior to the California court's decision, the insurance policies were worth, as the majority puts it, the value of "unlimited policy coverage" (i. e., perhaps the insurance companies' entire net worth) "discounted by the risk that Fibreboard would ultimately lose the coverage dispute litigation." Ante, at 851.
The insurance companies offered to settle with both Fibre-board and those persons with claims against Fibreboard (who might have tried to sue the insurance companies directly). The settlement negotiations came to a head in August 1993, just as a California state appeals court was poised to decide the validity of the insurance policies. This fact meant speed was important, for the California court could well decide that the policies were worth nothing. It also meant that it was important to certify a non-opt-out class of Fibreboard plain-
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