Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 12, 1993                   TAG: 9305120057
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SOUTH BEND, IND.                                LENGTH: Short

DOMINO'S SETTLES LAWSUIT OVER IND. WOMAN'S DEATH FAMILY CLAIMED 30-MINUTE

Susan Noonan Wauchop, 41, of Calumet City, died when her van was struck by a Domino's truck near the Indiana-Michigan line. Three of her sons and a friend also were injured in the May 25, 1990, crash.

The lawsuit claimed the truck's driver, Christopher Braden, then 18, of Niles, Mich., drove too fast in the rainy weather to meet the deadline.

Domino's has maintained the guarantee was not a factor and that weather and road conditions contributed to the crash. Most of the settlement will be paid by insurance companies for Braden and Scott Halvorsen, who held the franchise of the store where Braden worked.

The lawsuit, filed by Wauchop's husband, Dennis, and her three sons, was to have begun its second week of trial in U.S. District Court this week.

The agreement announced Monday gives the injured friend, Timothy Scott, 18, of Lynnwood, Ill., $30,000. The rest will go to Wauchop's children and estate.

C. Roy Peterson, an attorney for Domino's, said the company decided to settle out of court because of uncertainty about what a jury would decide. He said the settlement did not indicate guilt.

"We feel strongly our position was correct. Our experts would have said they did not believe the [30-minute guarantee] had anything to do with the accident," Peterson said.

He declined to say whether the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based company would change its delivery policy.

Keywords:
FATALITY