Remember more than a year ago when former co-defendants with HSUS, the special interest group American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, had to fork over $9.3 million as a settlement to Feld Entertainment, producer of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus? Now the Humane Society of the United States along with other remaining co-defendants have to pay Feld Entertainment $15.75 million over the same lawsuit filed under the Endangered Species Act, which claimed that Feld Entertainment was abusing their elephants. This ends over a decade of litigation between the groups and will hopefully be a strong deterrent to similar frivolous lawsuits such as this being brought in the future. With the U.S. District Court ruling that this lawsuit filed by the animal rights groups was “frivolous, vexatious, groundless and unreasonable from its inception” it’s a pretty sure fired bet that it will be. The settlement also marks another historic moment as it’s the first time in U.S. history that it’s been ruled a defendant in an ESA case is entitled to recover 100% of legal fees incurred while defending against the lawsuit due to its frivolous nature.