Cooper Tire Settles Lawsuit

CHICAGO, May 24 Reuters reported that Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. has settled a lawsuit over a 1998 accident that killed four people and seriously injured two others.

The settlement, reached late Thursday in Little Rock, Arkansas, came one day after a U.S. District Court judge sanctioned the tiremaker for burning potentially damaging documents.

A trial of the tire separation case had been set to start on Tuesday in Helena, Arkansas. The amount of the settlement, which also resolves the sanctions, was not disclosed.

Cooper, the second-largest U.S. tiremaker behind Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. , said insurance will cover the settlement, and the sanctions had no bearing on its decision to settle the suit.

"Despite the fact that the tire was not the fault of the May 1998 accident, the settlement is in the best interest of all concerned," the Findlay, Ohio, company said in a statement on Friday.

Cooper Tire still faces several other similar lawsuits pending across the country. In addition, a New Jersey judge is considering a proposed class-action settlement that would provide an extended warranty on as many as 170 million tires.