Settlements

WASHINGTON - Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana said they improved his strength and posture. Celebrity Kim Kardashian boasted they allowed her to ditch her personal trainer. But federal and state officials said the rocker-bottom Shape-ups and other toning shoes made by Skechers USA Inc. don't live up to the hype from the company and its high-profile endorsers. On Wednesday, the Manhattan Beach company agreed to pay $50 million to settle false-advertising allegations by the Federal Trade Commission and the attorneys general of 44 states, including California, as well as the District of Columbia.

Paramount Pictures has agreed to pay $18.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a movie extra who sustained a serious head injury during filming of the blockbuster Paramount Pictures movie "Transformers: Dark of the Moon."Gabriela Cedillo, 26, was driving a car in a background scene when she was struck in the head by a stunt vehicle that broke lose from a cable during filming of the movie in Hammond, Ind. The accident on Sept. 1, 2010, left Cedillo with permanent brain injuries.

Homeowners more deeply underwater on mortgages handled by five major U.S. banking firms are prime candidates for getting help from a $25-billion nationwide settlement over alleged foreclosure abuses. That's because the settlement gives the nation's largest mortgage servicers more incentives to help those who owe 40% to 75% more than the value of their homes, according to details of the settlement filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington. In a complex series of formulas designed to maximize the effect of the deal reached last month, banks will get more than six times the credit for reducing loans for severely underwater borrowers than they would for helping those who owe 5% to 15% more than the value of their homes.

SACRAMENTO — Some of California's share of the money from a national legal settlement with big mortgage lenders can be used to help fill a hole in the governor's proposed budget, the Legislature's nonpartisan policy advisor recommended. The legislative analyst's office reported Tuesday that $411 million should be used for a variety of purposes. Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris, who reached the settlement together with other state attorneys general, wanted to use most of the $411 million on financial counseling and education.

Bank of America has agreed to reduce the loan balances of underwater homeowners more aggressively than other banks, saying that by next month it will start contacting 200,000 borrowers who may qualify. The pledge is part of a side deal that BofA signed when it and other large providers of mortgage customer service reached a recent $25-billion foreclosure-abuse settlement with state and federal government agencies. Writing down the balance of home loans for underwater borrowers — people who owe more than their homes are worth — is a controversial practice.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis reached a financial settlement with six men who claimed they were sexually molested by five priests as far back as the 1960s, victims' advocacy group SNAP said. The men will be paid $312,500, with individual settlements of $20,000 to $90,000, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests reported. The group said the settlements were finalized in recent weeks through mediation. An attorney for the archdiocese confirmed that several abuse cases had been resolved.

In a settlement ending five years of litigation, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to pay $885,000 to the owners of 16 Malibu homes damaged by the Big Rock Mesa landslide. Three months ago, in a first round of settlements, the supervisors agreed to pay $35 million as the county's share of a $97-million award to 240 other owners whose homes were damaged or destroyed during the 1983 slide. The state and insurance companies have agreed to pay the rest. The amount awarded Tuesday, about $52,000 per home, was less than the $146,000 per home the county agreed to pay in January because the houses involved were not as severely damaged, officials said.

Nearly six years after the collapse of WorldCom Inc., the Securities and Exchange Commission barred two former Arthur Andersen auditors from practicing before the agency in settlements of claims that they inadequately scrutinized the 2001 earnings as the communications company was defrauding investors. Melvin Dick, 54, and Kenneth Avery, 41, should have arranged more thorough audits after learning WorldCom executives had reason and opportunity to deceive shareholders, the SEC said Monday.

Marc Christian MacGinnis, who won a multimillion-dollar settlement in 1991 from the estate of his ex-lover, actor Rock Hudson, after convincing a jury Hudson had knowingly exposed him to AIDS, has died. He was 56. Known as Marc Christian, he died of pulmonary problems June 2 at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. The details were confirmed Friday by his sister, Susan Dahl, who said she did not publicly announce his death earlier because of her brother's wish for privacy.

Ending one of the nation's most contentious and costly palimony battles, flashlight mogul Anthony Maglica has agreed to pay $29 million to his former companion of 20 years, Claire Maglica, a woman he never married but who claims to have helped him build his multimillion-dollar company. The settlement reached last week represents a fraction of the $84 million awarded to Claire Maglica by an Orange County jury in 1994.

The heads of Apple Inc.and Samsung Electronics Co. will sit opposite each other in settlement talks this week, even as the rival smartphone makers continue to blast each other with patent infringement claims. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook was scheduled to participate in a mediation conference with Samsung Chief Executive Gee-Sung Choi in front of a San Francisco judge Monday and Tuesday to discuss how to speed the resolution of a high-profile U.S. patent case. The 13-month-old case in the U.S. District Court in Northern California is one of many around the world that are amounting to a bruising patent war. The two companies have repeatedly accused one another of copying the look and function of their rival's tablets and smartphones.

WASHINGTON - Europe's top antitrust official said that Google Inc. may have abused its dominance to squelch online competition and urged the company to settle allegations to avoid formal charges that could carry a hefty fine. A quick resolution to the investigation that began in 2010 would benefit the fast-moving online marketplace, Joaquin Almunia, head of competition policy for the European Commission, said in a rare public call to end the case quickly. A settlement "at an early stage is always preferable to lengthy proceedings," Almunia said.

SACRAMENTO - The state paid a $74,400 settlement to a company co-owned by the husband of state Sen. Mimi Walters (R-Laguna Niguel) after her office repeatedly called the prisons agency to check on a claim filed by the firm. The senator's husband, David Walters, co-owns a company that provides pharmacists to the California corrections system. The firm filed a claim with the state last year contending that the business was underpaid for its services. A spokesman for Mimi Walters said this week that the aide who made the calls, D. Everett Rice, was following the senator's policy to aggressively help constituents deal with state red tape.

SACRAMENTO - Efforts to ease California's foreclosure woes, among the worst in the nation, are running into roadblocks at the state Capitol. A rare legislative conference committee called to rescue a pair of stalled foreclosure-prevention bills is bogged down in marathon sessions. Meanwhile, Gov. Jerry Brown is pushing to use some of California's share of the $25-billion national mortgage settlement to plug holes in the state's budget, dismaying housing activists. Since the start of the real estate bust, foreclosures have been a persistent drag on the state's homeowners and economy.

The Dodgers' new owners could reap hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits from the confidential terms of a U.S. Bankruptcy Court settlement between former owner Frank McCourt and Major League Baseball. The terms can be enforced for up to 40 years, with final authority over distribution of the Dodgers' television revenue granted to the court rather than to MLB, according to two people familiar with the sale process but not authorized to discuss it. As a result, the Dodgers' new owners could retain millions each year that otherwise would be shared with other teams.

Clarence Ayers was baffled. At 73, he was raising his great-granddaughter in rural Fresno County. He relied on $334 a month in public assistance to help cover the teenager's expenses: new shoes when she outgrew her old ones, transportation to the after-school activities she enjoyed. But last summer, county officials said they were slicing his CalWorks payment by 10% and for the most perplexing of reasons: Over the years, they had mistakenly sent $10,000 to the girl's mother and grandfather.

Los Angeles County supervisors have agreed to pay $3 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the children of Edith Rodriguez, the woman who died after writhing in pain for 45 minutes on the waiting-room floor of Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital. Rodriguez's death nearly two years ago attracted national attention, becoming a symbol of an indifferent emergency system.

Toyota Motor Corp., plagued for years by claims that engines in some of its most popular vehicles were subject to damaging oil sludge buildup, has settled a class-action lawsuit over the issue. The agreement, approved Wednesday in a suit filed in 2001 in state court in Louisiana, covers about 3.5 million 1997-2002 model year Toyota and Lexus vehicles.

It's not quite a check in the mail, but certain distressed mortgage borrowers at Bank of America Corp. will be happy they opened the letter anyhow. The Charlotte, N.C., lender said Tuesday it has begun contacting about 200,000 customers who have fallen behind on home loans and owe more than their current home values. It is notifying them that they may qualify to have their loan balances reduced as much as $100,000 as part of a $25-billion, 49-state settlement over foreclosure abuses.

JERUSALEM — The surprise unity government announced Tuesday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has many observers predicting that the reformed coalition will embark on a more moderate path, including reopening talks with Palestinians and softening rhetoric on attacking Iran. The addition of the centrist Kadima party to what has been called one of Israel's most right-wing coalition governments gives Netanyahu a comfortable 78% majority in the parliament, lessening the clout of small right-wing parties and factions.