Sutter Health, Northern California’s largest hospital chain, has agreed to settle claims that it used its market power to artificially inflate health care prices in the Bay Area and the Sacramento Valley.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo, who was overseeing consolidated lawsuits brought on behalf of employers, employee trusts that pay for worker health services,= and the state of California, announced the settlement from the bench Wednesday morning prior to rescheduled opening statements before thanking jurors. Multiple jurors made audible expressions of relief upon their dismissal from what was expected to be a three-month trial heavy with economic experts and testimony on hospital pricing.