Phone Suit Settlement Supported by Judge

Sprint Corp., the third-largest U.S. long-distance telephone company, and three other telecom companies won a judge’s preliminary permission to settle a lawsuit by paying about $142.5 million to property owners nationwide.

The agreement affects as many as 360,000 people who said the telecom companies installed fiber optic cables on their land, which had been used as railroad right of way. U.S. District Judge Wayne R. Andersen in Chicago gave preliminary approval to the agreement.

The suit claimed companies placed the cable on rights of way without getting the landowners’ permission.

Sprint is a unit of Kansas City-based Sprint FON Group, which closed up 39 cents to $15.19 on the New York Stock Exchange.