Judge Robert Gerber of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan approved the settlement last week without a hearing, according to court papers.

The deal settles a lawsuit Adelphia filed against Deloitte in 2002, as well as a series of claims Deloitte filed in Adelphia's bankruptcy case.

In its request to the court to approve the settlement, Adelphia and the trust said the settlement is believed to be one of the largest recoveries by a company against its former auditor.

They said the settlement was fair and eliminated the risk of costly litigation. Adelphia's lawsuit against Deloitte, in which Deloitte was accused of malpractice in its audits, was set to go to trial in September and last about 12 weeks.

"Although the trust believes that its claims against Deloitte have considerable merit, the outcome of any jury trial is unknown. Even if a jury entered a verdict in favor of the trust and awarded damages, an appeal inevitably would follow," they said.

Meanwhile, Deloitte has dropped a lawsuit against Adelphia's founding Rigas family. John Rigas and his son Timothy, who were convicted in 2004 of pocketing more than $2 billion from Adelphia for their own personal use and misleading investors about the company's finances, reported to prison earlier this month.

The Rigas family, however, wants the lawsuit to continue to "clear their name and have a proceeding in public," said Lawrence G. McMichael, an attorney for the family. The family has said Deloitte's advice led to Adelphia's collapse.

The family has asked the court to strike Deloitte's discontinuance of the case. The trial was scheduled to begin in September.

Adelphia was once one of the largest cable companies in the country before it collapsed in 2002 in the wake of a massive accounting fraud. It sold its assets to Time Warner Inc. and Comcast Corp.