According to a news article dated February 3, 2004, the court dismissed the plaintiffs' complaint for failure to state a claim. Plaintiffs appealed the dismissal, and then agreed to drop their appeal as part of a settlement. Settlement terms: payment of $280,000 cash to the Class (roughly $0.12 per share before the deduction of attorneys’ fees and expenses); payment of approximately $60,000 in expenses to plaintiffs’ counsel (plaintiffs’ counsel agreed to waive all attorneys’ fees under the circumstances).

As reported by the Company’s FORM 10-Q for the quarterly period ended June 28, 2003, subsequent to the parties entering into the settlement agreement, the Company's insurance carrier commenced liquidation proceedings. The insurance carrier informed the Company that in light of the liquidation proceedings, it would no longer fund the settlement. In addition, the value of the insurance policy is in serious doubt. In April 2002, the Company and the insurance carrier for the underwriters offered to proceed with the settlement. Plaintiffs' counsel accepted the terms of the proposed settlement, amounting to $175,000 for the Company, which was previously accrued. . The settlement has been approved by the Court and by the shareholders comprising the class, and the Company paid the settlement in June of 2003.

Earlier, according to the same SEC filing, upon a motion made on behalf of the Company, the Court dismissed the shareholder action, without prejudice, allowing the complaint to be refiled. The shareholder action was subsequently refiled, asserting substantially the same claims as in the prior pleading. The Company again moved to dismiss the complaint. By Opinion and Order dated September 28, 2000, the Court dismissed the action, this time with prejudice, thereby barring plaintiffs from any further amendments to their complaint and directing that the case be closed. Plaintiffs filed a Notice of Appeal to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and the parties submitted their briefs. Subsequently, the parties notified the Court of Appeals that they had reached an agreement in principle to resolve the outstanding appeal and settle the case upon terms and conditions which require submission to the District Court for approval. Upon application of the parties and in order to facilitate the parties' pursuit of settlement, the Court of Appeals issued an Order dated May 18, 2001 adjourning oral argument on the appeal and remanding the case to the District Court for further proceedings in connection with the proposed settlement.

In August 1998, the Company, its Directors, and certain underwriters were named as defendants in a complaint filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey by certain shareholders, purportedly on behalf of a class of shareholders, alleging that the defendants, during the period April 30, 1998 through June 12, 1998, violated various provisions of the federal securities laws in connection with an offering of 2,500,000 shares of the Company's Common Stock. The complaint alleged that the Company's offering documents were materially incomplete, and as a result misleading, and that the purported class members purchased the Company's Common Stock at artificially inflated prices and were damaged thereby.