On April 16, 2007 Judge Peter G. Sheridan of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey signed a final order and judgment approving a settlement amount of $9,000,000 to eligible members of the class and terminating the case. Judge Sheridan also approved attorney's fees in the amount of $311,375.46.

According to the Company’s Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2005, tn April 2003, the Registrant and the other defendants filed a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim and failure to plead fraud with particularity. On March 31, 2004, the court granted the defendant’s motion to dismiss the complaint. The plaintiffs were granted leave to file an amended complaint. Plaintiffs filed an amended complaint in June 2004. Defendants moved to dismiss the amended complaint. In June 2005, this motion was denied.

The original complaint alleges securities violations involved with the acquisition of Triton Energy Ltd. Specifically, the complaint alleges that Amerada began secret discussions in early 2001 to acquire Triton for more than $3 billion. The complaint further alleges that top insiders at Amerada who were aware of the proposed deal then sold off huge amounts of company stock to avoid losses in connection with the subsequent stock decline when the Triton deal was disclosed.

The complaint furhter alleges that in early July of 2001, Amerada agreed to acquire Triton for $45 a share, more than a 50% premium over Triton's closing price of $29.91. During that month, Amerada's stock steadily declined and by the time the deal was completed and Amerada announced it was borrowing $2.5 billion to finance the deal in September, the stock fell to a new low of $59.09 a share.