Judge OKs Toshiba Settlement

Toshiba Corp. won a federal judge’s approval for a $2.1-billion settlement of a lawsuit that alleged the world’s largest notebook computer maker intentionally sold machines with faulty floppy disk controllers. It’s one of the largest product liability settlements in U.S. history and the biggest in the high-technology industry, expert witnesses in the case said. Toshiba personal computer owners will get as much as $331 in cash or coupons each to replace or fix their machines under terms of the settlement approved in Beaumont, Texas, by U.S. District Judge Thad Heartfield. Two Toshiba PC owners filed suit in March, alleging that defective floppy disk controllers in their laptops caused data to be damaged or lost when copied to a disk. Tokyo-based Toshiba shipped nearly 5 million computers with the device since 1985, plaintiffs’ lawyers said.