State Farm Settles Bias Case

Women denied jobs as agents with State Farm Insurance Co. in California could receive as much as $420,000 each in what attorneys today said may be the largest recorded sex discrimination settlement in the history of the Civil Rights Act.

“I felt if I got $5.50 out of the whole thing I’d be lucky,” Muriel Kraszewski, one of three women who filed suit in 1979, said. “I just never wanted (State Farm) to do this to any woman ever again.” The landmark settlement could cost State Farm $300 million, according to attorney Guy Saperstein, who represented Kraszewski, Wilda Tipton and Daisy Jackson. The settlement covers women who applied for and were denied 1,113 State Farm agent jobs in California from July 5, 1974, to Dec. 31, 1987. Attorneys said U.S. District Judge Thelton E. Henderson is expected to sign the agreement.