Thousands of Maryland residents are eligible for a $57 million class action settlement with the estate of Peter Angelos and his law firms, according to a news release from law firm Gallagher Evelius & Jones.
The Baltimore City Circuit Court approved the settlement agreement Friday, the news release said. The firm represented three individual plaintiffs and a class of thousands who participated in a 1994 settlement agreement with asbestos installer MCIC, Inc. in Baltimore, formerly known as McCormick Asbestos Company.
The company’s press release stated that the 1994 settlement was based on an agreement that MCIC’s insurers would pay all available insurance to a settlement fund.
“The class action lawsuit arose from decisions by Maryland courts that defendants waited too long to recover certain additional insurance benefits that were not disclosed by MCIC’s insurers,” the company said in the news release. “Defendants deny liability but agreed to the $57 million class action settlement with the expectation that these funds will bring meaningful relief to Maryland residents.”
The class action was filed in 2021. A spokesperson for Gallagher Evelius & Jones did not return requests for comment Monday.
According to a website for potential class recipients, Peter Angelos’ law offices reached a settlement agreement with MCIC in 1994 worth between $1,000 and $9,500 per claim. Around 1998, the Angelos firm discovered “substantial additional insurance coverage that applied to the claims,” according to Gallagher Evelius & Jones. MCIC and its insurers did not distribute the additional insurance claims, and the Angelos firm filed a motion to enforce the settlement agreement in 2002, which was denied because too much time had passed.
In 2021, the plaintiffs, represented by Gallagher Evelius & Jones, filed a legal malpractice lawsuit over the MCIC settlement agreement and named the Law Offices of Peter Angelos and some of its attorneys as defendants, according to Gallagher Evelius & Jones. In that case, the settlement will now pay out $57 million to potentially more than 7,000 beneficiaries, based on their injury categories as established in the 1994 MCIC settlement.
Gallagher Evelius & Jones said the money for the settlement will come largely from Angelos’ estate. The former owner of the Orioles died in March 2023 at the age of 94. Angelos received more than $1 billion in damages from asbestos companies in the 1990s.
“We are thrilled that Peter’s legacy and his family’s continued commitment have created a resolution that serves to add even more benefits to so many of our firm’s historic clients,” said Jay Miller, general counsel of the Law Offices of Peter Angelos in the news. edition.
Notice of the class settlement was given to class members earlier this year, and the first payments are expected to begin in January, according to Gallagher Evelius & Jones.
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