Settlements

The San Francisco Zoo has settled a lawsuit with two brothers who survived the tiger attack on Christmas Day 2007 that killed their friend. The zoo issued a statement saying it was thankful the lawsuit with Kulbir and Amirtpal "Paul" Dhaliwal had been settled. The brothers survived an attack by an escaped Siberian tiger. Carlos Sousa Jr., 17, was killed. Sousa's parents also reached a settlement with the zoo. Details of both lawsuits remain secret.

Retail giant TJX Cos. agreed Tuesday to pay $9.75 million to 41 states including California to settle an investigation of a massive data breach that jeopardized millions of payment card numbers. TJX, the parent company of the T.J. Maxx and Marshalls discount clothing chains, will pay $7.25 million in settlement and investigation costs. In addition, $2.5 million will go to create a data security fund for those states. California's share is $624,393.

The Authors Guild hasn't said much since it settled its lawsuit last fall with Google Inc. over the search company's book-scanning project, but it defended the settlement Thursday against recent criticism. In a letter, author and guild President Roy Blount Jr. said the settlement should be approved because it would ultimately help to find authors of so-called orphan books, which are works that are out of print and unclaimed by any copyright holders.

The Justice Department on Thursday said it had launched a formal antitrust investigation into the proposed settlement over the Google Inc. project to scan millions of books into a digital format. The department in April canvassed organizations, including two nonprofit groups, that raised objections to Google's settlement with the Authors Guild and the American Assn. of Publishers. The queries were considered informal.

Activision Blizzard Inc. has given up on its effort to block competitor Electronic Arts Inc. from releasing the heavy-metal music game Brutal Legend, which stars Jack Black. A person familiar with the settlement, who declined to be identified because the terms are confidential, confirmed to The Times that the game would be released in October, as EA, of Redwood City, Calif., had previously planned. Santa Monica-based Activision sued the game's developer, Double Fine Productions Inc.

Bank of America Corp. has agreed to pay $55 million to settle claims of former employees of Countrywide Financial Corp. who contended that the Calabasas home lender breached its obligation to manage their retirement funds prudently. Plaintiff attorneys said in a federal court filing Friday that the proposed settlement of a class-action lawsuit "represents an excellent recovery" for the former employees. Before legal fees, it would provide about $1,000 for each of the 55,000 employees Countrywide had at its peak.

Legal advocates for the poor, elderly and disabled secured a $500-million class-action settlement Tuesday for as many as 200,000 people whose Social Security benefits were suspended on unfounded suspicions that they were fleeing prosecution. The suspensions, dating back nearly a decade in some instances, were ordered in cases of mistaken identity or outstanding warrants for offenses such as bounced checks or traffic violations. "Virtually none" of the Social Security recipients who were cut off after their names were matched with those in a computerized warrant database were felons using their government benefits to evade law enforcement or prosecution, said Gerald McIntyre, an attorney for the National Senior Citizens Law Center.

A Los Angeles firm agreed to pay $31,500 to settle allegations that it imported and sold toys that were hazardous to young children, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said. TGH International Trading Inc. brought more than 11,000 toys into the U.S. from March 2005 to June 2006 that contained small parts that presented a choking hazard to children. Many of the hazardous toys were seized at the Port of Long Beach by federal officials before they could reach store shelves, the agency said, and those that did reach stores were recalled.

Suicides among veterans average 18 a day, by the government's estimation, and a backlog of disability claims for post-traumatic stress disorder and other untreated ailments approaches 1 million. With a massive military drawdown from Iraq and Afghanistan potentially on the horizon, lawyers for the veterans want a federal appeals court to order the Department of Veterans Affairs to make good on the nation's commitment to take care of those wounded in mind as well as body. It is an onerous task that a lower court has already deemed beyond the power of the judiciary to correct.

Bank of America Corp. and the Securities and Exchange Commission have become unlikely allies in pressing a federal judge to approve their hoped-for legal settlement over controversial bonuses at Merrill Lynch & Co. Although their rationales differed, each implored U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff on Monday to sign off on the $33-million accord. "The proposed settlement is fair, reasonable, adequate and squarely in the public interest," wrote David Rosenfeld, associate director of the SEC's Manhattan office.