Shuttle Death Settlements Top $7 Million

The government and rocket manufacturer Morton Thiokol paid $7,735,000 in cash and annuities, dividing the cost 40-60, to settle all claims with the families of four of the crew members who died in the explosion of the shuttle Challenger, documents released Monday showed.

Morton Thiokol, maker of the faulty booster rocket that was blamed for the Jan. 28, 1986, explosion, paid $4,641,000. The government’s share of the settlements was $3,094,000.

The surviving four spouses and six children actually will receive more than $7.7 million among them because each was paid an annuity, which yields benefits larger than its cost over a period of many years.

The total dollar amount the families ultimately will receive and how much each will get were not disclosed.

Suit Pressed by Media

With the release of the documents, the Justice Department settled a civil suit brought under the Freedom of Information Act by the Associated Press and six other news organizations. The government had kept details of the settlements and negotiations secret, arguing that it needed to keep its internal deliberations confidential and that the company and families demanded secrecy.

The documents, with some deletions to preserve privacy, show the final settlements with the families and the company, some correspondence between the government and the company and several Justice Department statements on the negotiations.

The settlements were reached on Dec. 29, 1986, with the immediate survivors of the spacecraft commander, Francis R. Scobee, 46, a retired Air Force officer employed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; mission specialist Ellison S. Onizuka, 39, an Air Force lieutenant colonel; payload specialist Gregory B. Jarvis, 41, an employee of Hughes Aircraft Co.; and Sharon Christa McAuliffe, 37, a Concord, N. H., schoolteacher.

Scobee is survived by his wife, June, and two adult children. Onizuka left his wife, Lorna, and two minor children. Jarvis left his wife, Marcia, and McAuliffe left her husband, Steven, and two minor children.

Details of Payments

Among the disclosures:

--The four families used no lawyers in the negotiations but relied on informal advice from Leo B. Lind Jr., the law partner of McAuliffe’s husband and executor of her estate.

--The Justice Department did all the negotiating for Morton Thiokol as well as the government. Lind said in an affidavit that no member of any of the families spoke with company representatives.

--Although the Justice Department takes the position that the government may not be sued by survivors of military or federal civilian employees who die on duty, it contributed 40% of each of the settlements. Only the Jarvis and McAuliffe relatives had a right to sue the government; all the astronaut families could sue the company.

--Morton Thiokol’s attorneys said the government was being unfair to the divorced parents of mission specialist Judith A. Resnik, 36, a civilian NASA employee. “My negotiations on behalf of Morton Thiokol have been constrained by the government’s refusal to participate to any degree at all” in a settlement the company considered acceptable, the company attorney, John W. Adler, wrote to the Justice Department last July.

Separate Settlements

Michael D. Oldak, Resnik’s ex-husband, represented her father, Marvin. Last month, he and the company reached a settlement to which the government did not contribute.

In January, Resnik’s mother, Sarah Resnik Belfer, and Jarvis’ father, Bruce, settled with Morton Thiokol but the government did not contribute.

Last May, the company settled a suit by Cheryl McNair, wife of mission specialist Ronald E. McNair, 35, a civilian NASA employee who also left two young children.

Jane Smith, wife of pilot Michael J. Smith, 40, a Navy commander, has a claim against the company pending in federal court. The government last month was dropped as a defendant in the Smith case because military personnel have no right to sue the government for wrongful death.