Ferdinand Marcos and Imelda Marcos / Estate of Ferdinand E. Marcos Human Rights Litigation

In January 2011, the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii authorized the distribution of $1,000 to each of the 7,526 eligible members of the class action brought by victims of the Marcos era human rights violations. The Court held that $10,261,000 were available in the Class Settlement Fund (comprised of $286,000 from pre-2010 executions and $9,975,000 net from the Texas class action settlement, Del Prado v. BN Development Company Inc et al, Case No. 4:05-cv-00234-Y; and included the following Colorado actions: De Leon v. Imelda R. Marcos et al., No. 09-CV-2216, and 135 Randomly Selected Class Claimants and the Plaintiff Class as Designated in the Judgment of February 3, 1995 v. Denman Investment Corporation, Inc. et al, No. 05-CV-702)

The Court ordered the funds to be distributed as follows: $7,526,000 to 7,526 eligible class members, the vast majority of whom reside in the Philippines; $50,000 advanced to the attorneys for the cost of distribution; $1,402,288 in plaintiff's attorney fees and $847,952 in reimbursable costs for their work for the past 25 years; $300,000 to Alan Meeker in finders fee for locating the Marcos-related properties in Texas and Colorado; $10,000 to Jerry Pimentel as the next of kin to deceased Mariano Pimentel for Mariano Pimentel's services as a class representative in the Texas and Colorado actions; $5,000 to Ferdinand De Leon, for services as class representative. The order is in partial satisfaction of a 1995 judgment for $2 billion that was awarded to the human rights victims, who registered the judgment in Illinois, and in turn, in Texas. In 2010, a federal court in Northern District of Texas approved a settlement agreement between the human rights victims and seven companies that held legal ownership to properties in Texas and Colorado that the claimants had alleged were beneficially owned by the Marcoses. Hong Kong provided judicial assistance in the Texas case. On January 25, 2011, Judge Manuel Real also handed down a Judgment of Contempt against Imelda R. Marcos, Ferdinand E. Marcos and the Estate of Ferdinand E. Marcos in the amount of $353,600,000. The Court held that it had jurisdiction over a contempt order of May 26, 1995 which provided a daily sanction of $100,000 against the Marcoses for refusing to furnish information and using the frozen assets of the estate, and that a total of 3,536 days had elapsed since the Contempt Order. On February 24, the Marcoses' attorneys filed an appeal against the Judgment of Contempt. (Source: In Re: Estate of Ferdinand E. Marcos Human Rights Litigation, Case No. 1:03-cv-11111-MLR (MDL-00840-MLR) (D. Hawaii), Order Authorizing Distribution to Eligible Class Members from the Settlement Fund, Order for Interim Award of Attorneys Fees and Reimbursement of Expenses, and Order for Finders Fee and Incentive Fee, all issued on January 13, 2011; Judgment of Contempt and Judgment in a Civil Case, both filed on January 25, 2011; Notice of Appeal, filed on February 24, 2011.)