NEW YORK ? United Parcel Service Inc. has agreed to settle a consolidated class action lawsuit that alleged it overcharged shippers for excess-value package insurance written by a Bermuda-based Overseas Partners Ltd.

Busioness Insurance reported yesterday that UPS was hit with 27 lawsuits after a US Tax Court judge ruled in 1999 that Overseas Partners was a ?sham? intended to divert taxable UPS income from the excess-value programme. A panel of the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals later overturned the ruling, finding that OPL served a legitimate business purpose. The class actions continued, though, after being consolidated before US District Judge Richard Berman in New York.

Judge Berman on Friday approved the terms of a settlement, under which UPS would pay no cash but would grant customers covered by the deal vouchers good for future UPS shipments.

plaintiffs? lawyers valued the vouchers at $205 million, but a UPS spokesman insisted that ?it?s going to be notably less than that?.

UPS has not itself estimated the value of the settlement, the spokesman told Business Insurance, explaining that it is impossible to know how many of those covered will actually request and use the vouchers.

Individual plaintiffs may still object to the settlement, though lawyers in all of the original 27 cases have agreed to its terms, the spokesman added.

Judge Berman, meanwhile, has asked a magistrate judge to review the plaintiff lawyers? request for $19.3 million in fees, the maximum allowed under the settlement agreement, Business Insurance said.