A New Jersey judge has approved a settlement of a class suit claiming that artificial turf installed at high schools and other athletic facilities was inherently defective and disintegrated prematurely.

The settlement, approved Dec. 13 by U.S. District Judge Michael Shipp, brings to an end more than seven years of litigation against FieldTurf USA of Calhoun, Georgia; FieldTurf Tarkett SAS of Nanterre Cedex, France, which is the parent company to FieldTurf USA; and Tarkett of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, which is a successor to FieldTurf Tarkett. The class members include many public school districts that installed the company's products on athletic fields, only to face the costs of replacing the artificial turf when it fell apart.