<B>Tissue Makers Settle Suit</B>

a price- fixing lawsuit for $56.2 million, according to Bloomberg.

The suit alleged that Dallas-based Kimberly-Clark, the world's top tissue maker, and other manufacturers -- including Fort James Corp. and Georgia Pacific Corp. had conspired to raise the price for tissues, toilet paper, paper towels, paper napkins, and other items.

Plaintiffs in the class-action settlement will receive $18 million in cash and $38.2 million in coupons redeemable for 15 percent of the cost of commercial tissue products, according to a statement by the plaintiffs' lawyers.

Plaintiffs' attorney Howard Langer said he expected his clients to make use of the coupons. ``There will be a very high redemption rate because they (the coupons) are going to substantial commercial entities,'' which purchased the paper products in bulk, he said.

Langer said the alleged scheme ran from the early 1990s until the complaint was filed in 1998. He said the state of Florida had filed its own civil suit against the tissue makers, which subsequently settled, and that several grand juries had been probing the allegations. Criminal charges were never filed, he said.