Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 26, 1991 TAG: 9103260091
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
About $725,000 will be divided among hundreds of other grocers.
Federal Judge Jackson Kiser has approved the settlement, proposed at a hearing in February. Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Roanoke and General Cinema Beverages of Virginia, a Pepsi-Cola bottler, agreed in November to deposit $1 million in an escrow account to pay the claims.
G. Clarence Hartman, a Roanoke man who formerly operated a Daleville grocery, will receive $15,000 as an "incentive payment" for initiating the action. He filed the suit, claiming the bottlers fixed prices from 1977 to 1987.
In approving the payment to Hartman, Kiser said no other grocer would have recovered anything without his efforts. Kiser said the proposed settlement was fair, reasonable and adequate. He said his order released the bottlers from any further claims.
He also said none of the eligible claimants opposed paying 25 percent of the settlement fund for legal fees.
There were more than 300 claims filed against the fund by large stores, supermarket chains and small groceries.
Leonard Egan, Hartman's attorney, is to audit the claims. The grocers will receive a prorated share of the settlement fund, with the amount based on the sales of the soft drinks during the 10-year period.
Sellers of soft drinks in the counties of Roanoke, Botetourt, Craig, Montgomery, Floyd, Giles, Patrick, Franklin, Alleghany and Bath filed claims.
by CNB