
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, August 6, 1995                   TAG: 9508070123
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: DAYTON, OHIO                                LENGTH: Short

PACEMAKER SETTLEMENT OFFERED

A company has offered $21.53 million to settle a lawsuit filed on behalf of about 3,000 people who say they were injured by defective pacemakers.

U.S. District Judge Walter H. Rice set a hearing for Aug. 24 to determine the fairness of the offer from Cordis Corp. of Miami and TNC Medical Devices, an Australian company that bought Cordis' pacemaker business eight years ago.

The offer, which has received Rice's preliminary approval, was summarized in court documents filed Thursday.

The class-action lawsuit consolidated in 1991 claims that more than 30,000 Cordis pacemakers had electrical problems, including premature battery failure. The suit claims negligence, misrepresentation and fraud. No deaths have been blamed on the devices.

- Associated Press

by CNB