The University of California paid $33-million last month to nearly 35,000 former students who brought a class-action lawsuit alleging that the university system had illegally raised tuition despite a pledge not to do so, the Contra Costa Times reported on Monday.

The payments end a lawsuit filed in 2003 by eight students, who said the university had promised not to raise certain fees over the course of their studies but increased them anyway because of a state budget crisis.

A California judge ruled in 2006 that the decision to raise the fees represented a breach of contract between the university and the students, and an appeals court affirmed the ruling in 2007. The state’s Supreme Court declined to hear the university’s appeal.

The former students were compensated for the difference between the tuition they paid and the tuition they had expected to pay. The payments ranged from $1 to $12,000 per student, with most of the plaintiffs receiving $200 to $300, according to the newspaper. —Josh Keller