OKLAHOMA CITY -- Attorneys for Kerr-McGee Corp. and the estate of Karen Silkwood Friday announced a $1.38 million settlement in the decade-long lawsuit that elevated the dead nuclear plant worker to folk-hero status.
The settlement requires Kerr-McGee to pay $1.38 million to attorneys and beneficiaries of the Silkwood estate.
The settlement averts a continuation of the complex lawsuit that began in November 1976.
Silkwood, 28, a laboratory analyst at Kerr-McGee's Cimarron Nuclear Facility in Crescent, Okla., died in a car crash Nov. 13, 1974. She was driving to meet a New York Times reporter with information about the company's alleged failure to protect workers from radiation.
Kerr-McGee spokesman Rick Pereles said the company believed it would have won the new trial that was ordered by an appeals court and upheld by the Supreme Court.
'We firmly believe Kerr-McGee would have prevailed in the scheduled retrial,' Pereles said. 'However, burdensome legal costs and significant time demands would be imposed on our company and our people by another trial and the inevitable and lengthy appeals.'
Silkwood's father Bill Silkwood said, 'I feel pretty good about it. It's been a long 12 years for me.'
Silkwood said Kerr-McGee would 'never admit their guilt,' but he said the original jury 'found them guilty of gross negligence.'
The settlement calls for the three children of Karen Silkwood to receive about $500,000 with the remainder being used for legal fees and other expenses.
Jim Ikard said he the two other lawyers who represented the Silkwood family lost money in the long legal battle.
'I could have made more working at a Burger King,' Ikard said.
