Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon (S.D. Tex.) put the final nail in the coffin of what was left of a lawsuit brought by Enron shareholders against banks they alleged helped the company commit fraud. The ruling, which effectively ends the case, comes exactly eight years to the day after Enron filed for bankruptcy protection.

The class bringing the lawsuit has already obtained a massive $7.2 billion in settlements in the case from defendants such as Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase & Co. The $7.2 billion is the all-time highest settlement amount in a securities class action according to Cornerstone Research.

Other bank defendants, however, refused to settle the case, and will now pay nothing following the dismissal. Reuters reports that non-settling defendants include Bank of America Corp's Merrill Lynch unit, Barclays Plc, Credit Suisse Group AG Royal Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Toronto-Dominion Bank.

Patrick Coughlin, a partner at Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP, which was lead counsel in the case, said $4.6 billion of the settlement funds have been distributed, another $1 billion is likely to follow this month, and the rest will likely go out by next summer.

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