ADAMS — Checks will start rolling out to property owners in the Adams Fire District in October as part of a lawsuit settlement that was finalized by a judge on Thursday.

The class-action settlement was reached between the fire district and the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, Catherine Foster, who owned a few properties there. The settlement approval by Judge Maureen Hogan was the last step before money could begin flowing back to property owners within the fire district.

Foster had argued fees the fire district assessed for fire protection and street lighting were illegal and amounted to a tax the fire district lacked the authority to asses, according to the district's attorney, Stephen Pagnotta.

The settlement means property owners within the district will get a reimbursement for the charges, Jeffrey Morneau, the attorney who represented Foster in the lawsuit, said in court on Thursday.

A different Berkshire Superior Court judge agreed with Foster's position last year, and the two sides reached a mediated, preliminary settlement in December 2022, Morneau said.

The water district agreed to pay out $600,000, money Pagnotta said is coming from the public entity's "free cash" account. That account is comprised of money that was collected from property owners, but not spent.

"We basically depleted, for the most part, one year's worth of the fire district's free cash," Morneau said.

The district now has about $205,000 in that account, according to Pagnotta.

Morneau said $125,000 of the settlement will be used for his attorney fee, about $4,218 of it will go to covering court costs and $7,500 of it will go to Foster to compensate her for the effort she put in reading documents and doing other tasks and labor as lead plaintiff in the litigation.

"She has been very actively involved in this case from start to finish," he said.

Certain property owners will get a cut of the remaining $463,282.

Settlement details

Pagnotta explained who is eligible for a cut of the settlement money, and how they'll receive it.

He said individuals who owned property in the Adams Fire District between July 1, 2019, through June 30, 2022, are eligible for a payment. The checks should hit mailboxes around the middle of October.

The checks will come from Optime Administration LLC, the company handling the settlement payments, and will be sent to mailing addresses the district has on file. Property owners don't need to take proactive steps to claim the settlement.

They will receive just over $102.79 for each housing unit they owned in the district during that time.

That means that a single-family homeowner will get $102.79, and the owner of multi-family with four apartment units in it would get $411.16, for example.

If they sold their property at some point during the July 1, 2019, through June 30, 2022, window, the payment will be prorated accordingly. Pagnotta said if individuals have since sold their property, they may want to contact the fire district to ensure a forwarding address is on file.