Nibco Plastic Pipe Settlement With Homeowners Gets Final OK

Pipe maker Nibco Inc.'s $7.65 million settlement with homeowners who allege its products are prone to leaking is fair and reasonable, a federal court in Texas said after an unusual delay related to opting out of the deal.

An attorney who represents the objector and plaintiffs in a competing class action “sent two inherently misleading, inherently coercive, and factually inaccurate letters to the putative class members encouraging them to opt-out,” Judge Richard B. Farrer said Wednesday for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.

Some 415 of the approximately 8,000 class members—homeowners in Alabama and Texas—initially opted ...