BOSTON — Harvard Medical School will pay $53 million to settle the “despicable, abhorrent” body parts scandal that shocked the university and resulted in a string of convictions on charges related to the gruesome sale of human remains from the academic morgue.

The class action settlement was preliminarily approved in Suffolk Superior Court during a Tuesday afternoon hearing after university officials announced the proposed resolution in a public letter the day before.

“A third-party Settlement Administrator will be appointed to, among other things, notify potential class members — including by creating a website with information on eligibility and instructions for submitting a claim — and to distribute settlement funds,” said George Q. Daley, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, and Bernard S. Chang, Dean for Medical Education, in a joint letter to the medical school community. “This process, from beginning to end, is expected to take several months.”

In line with the class action settlement, Harvard will establish “two class action settlement funds totaling $53 million” to resolve the lawsuits.

The court found the settlement “fair, just, reasonable and adequate to the certified Class and its members,” Suffolk Superior Judge Debra Squires-Lee stated in her decision Tuesday. A final court approval hearing is scheduled for December.

The lawsuit follows a gruesome scheme between 2018 and 2022 in which former Harvard morgue manager Cedric Lodge, along with his wife and buyer parties, facilitated the trade of human body parts donated to the medical research facility.

Lodge was convicted of interstate transport of stolen human remains and sentenced in December to 96 months in prison.

Federal prosecutors, in the indictment against Lodge, noted that the body parts trade he coordinated occurred, “without the knowledge or permission of HMS.”

Additionally, 7 other co-conspirators have convicted of crimes related to the macabre market, including a Haverhill woman who was sentenced in federal court in Pennsylvania to two years in jail, earlier this week. The morgue manager’s wife Denise Lodge was sentenced to a year and a day.

“These events do not reflect the reverence we hold for the altruistic individuals who selflessly donate their bodies to our Anatomical Gift Program (AGP) to provide essential educational opportunities to medical and dental students, practicing surgeons, and allied health professionals,” Daley and Chang wrote in the letter to the community.

“We reaffirm our deep sorrow and empathy for the families of donors who may have been impacted.”

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