October 31, 2003, Rodale Inc. entered into a settlement of the remainder of a civil action filed against it by scuba fin designer and manufacturer Bob Evans Designs, Inc. In exchange for Bob Evans Designs, Inc.'s agreement to dismiss its action, Rodale Inc. has agreed to make a cash payment of $9,000. As part of the settlement, both parties have denied any liability or wrongdoing.

Bob Evans Designs, Inc. filed its original complaint against Rodale Inc. on October 15, 2001 in the Superior Court of the State of California, for the County of Santa Barbara. The complaint alleged claims against Rodale Inc. for (1) defamation; (2) trade libel; (3) intentional interference with prospective economic advantage; (4) unfair business practices; and (5) breach of contract and sought compensatory damages totaling more than $4,800,000.

Following removal of the action to the United States District Court, the Honorable John F. Walter, United States District Judge, granted Rodale Inc.'s motion for summary judgment as to Bob Evans Design's first four causes of action and dismissed all of the major claims made against Rodale Inc. leaving only a minor breach of contract claim. Following the successful defense of the principal claims, Rodale Inc.'s management determined that business and economic considerations made the relatively small settlement to bring final closure to the action far more favorable than continued litigation.

Publisher of Rodale's Scuba Diving, Dane Farnum, commented: "While we hated to settle any part of this suit, the fact is that it would have cost us much more to defend this final issue which represented less than a quarter of one percent of the total damages being sought by Evans. After spending over $150,000 to defend Rodale's Scuba Diving on the primary counts, we were ready to move on. More importantly, Evans failed to prove any bias or wrong-doing and Rodale's Scuba Diving will continue to publish the only comparative scuba equipment evaluations available in the United States."