$30,000 payment offered in teens’ deaths

Kim Smith

Thursday, Jan. 10, 2002 | 9:47 a.m.

The company that insured the van driven by a Las Vegas woman who struck and killed six teenagers nearly two years ago wants to abide strictly with the policy and settle the claim for $30,000, according to court papers filed Wednesday.

An attorney who represents most of the victims' parents says a settlement for that amount would be "a farce."

Clark County, which was sued because the teens were on a county-sponsored work program when they were hit, settled the case for $3.25 million.

Farmers Insurance said it wants to put the $30,000 in an account and let a District Court judge decide how the money should be split among the families of the victims who were run over and killed by Jessica Williams.

By doing so, Farmers' attorney V. Andrew Cass wrote, the company hopes the court will find that Farmers has "fully, completely and forever discharged its liability to indemnify its insureds."

Williams' father had the van his daughter was driving insured on a minimum liability policy, which pays out a maximum of $30,000 per event, according to Farmers.

Las Vegas attorney Robert Murdock, who represents a majority of the victims' parents, said this is the first time the insurance company has offered to pay anything.

"It only took them one year and nine months to figure out that six dead children are worth $30,000," Murdock said. "What a farce."

The teens were picking up trash along Interstate 15 on March 19, 2000, as part of punishment for minor crimes when Williams' van ran onto the median and struck the teens.

The county settled as did Republic Services, the county's trash hauler and landfill operator, whose trash the teens were allegedly picking up. Republic settled for an undisclosed amount. Farmers and Williams are the remaining defendants in the civil claims.

Williams, 22, was sentenced in March to 18 to 48 years in prison after a jury found her guilty on six counts of felony driving with a prohibited substance in her blood.

According to a motion filed Wednesday, Farmers is "uncertain as to the amount of proceeds each defendant is entitled to receive under the policy" because of the competing claims of each of the victims' parents.

Murdock said Farmers should have been the first party to settle the case.

Because it is so late, Murdock said the plaintiffs are now considering seeking an additional sum.

"I don't know why they waited until now. They should have offered to pay the $30,000 two years ago," Murdock said.

Cass could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.