Mar. 10--Checks are headed to the mailboxes of 230,000 current and former Nationwide term-life insurance customers across the country, settling a class-action lawsuit against the Columbus-based company.

Nationwide agreed to pay a $6 million settlement in connection with a suit filed in Franklin County Common Pleas Court in 2005, which alleged that the company collected more than the maximum annual premiums outlined in their policies, according to court documents.

Nationwide had been accused in the lawsuit of fraud and violating Ohio consumer-protection laws.

The suit charged that customers who paid semi-annually, quarterly or monthly were charged more than the maximum premium. Those who paid once a year were not charged additional fees.

A Nationwide spokeswoman declined to comment on the settlement.

About 26,500 of those 230,000 customers are in Ohio. The alleged overpayments took place between Feb. 10, 1990, and Feb. 2, 2006.

The average check will be for $47, said Marc Stanley, an attorney with the settlement administrator.

In agreeing to the settlement, Nationwide admitted no wrongdoing, the court said. Nationwide said it settled to avoid "additional expense, inconveniences, burdens and distractions" associated with the case, court records show.

tturner@dispatch.com

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