Segerstrom to Settle Part of Lawsuit in Daughter’s Death : Courts: Ex-wife claims negligence in the farming accident that killed 7-year-old. A 10-year-old will get a $175,000 annuity.

Theodore Segerstrom, whose family built and owns South Coast Plaza, has agreed to settle part of a lawsuit filed by his former wife after their 7-year-old daughter was killed in a farming accident last year.

Under the partial settlement, Segerstrom’s insurance company will pay $43,000 in attorney’s fees and $175,000 to buy an annuity for the benefit of a second daughter, Rayell.

Rayell, 10, and her mother, Euna Denee Segerstrom of Lake Forest, filed a wrongful death and negligence lawsuit in January naming as defendants Segerstrom, C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, the family’s agricultural and development company; and Ruben Alcala, a 76-year-old farmhand who lives in Fountain Valley.

The lawsuit alleged that Theodore was negligent last August while driving a tractor, with a harvester attached and 7-year-old Corinne aboard, in the family’s lima-bean field on MacArthur Boulevard. She fell from the harvester and was crushed to death.

Under terms of the annuity, Rayell Segerstrom will receive $255,000 starting with $25,000 on her 18th birthday in February, 2002.

A spokeswoman for the Segerstroms declined to say if the family plans to settle the other part of the lawsuit involving the girl’s mother.

But in court papers filed last month, the Segerstrom family, Norman J. Watkins, said the family was not to blame because Euna Segerstrom, 33, and her daughter “knew of the danger and risk . . . but nevertheless freely and voluntarily exposed themselves to all risks” on the day of the accident.’

Theodore Segerstrom, who is active in the company’s agricultural interests, is the son of Harold T. (Hal) Segerstrom, who along with his cousin, Henry Segerstrom, turned the family’s lima-bean fields into retail and office parks in the South Coast area. In an apparent coincidence, Harold died in January on the same day Euna filed her lawsuit.