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The household of 32-year-old Monique Muñoz, who was killed final 12 months when an adolescent in a rushing Lamborghini slammed into her automobile, reached an $18.8-million settlement with an insurance coverage firm, attorneys introduced Wednesday.
The settlement stems from a lawsuit filed final 12 months in Los Angeles County Superior Courtroom alleging that Chubb Insurance coverage had discriminated in opposition to Muñoz for being Latina when calculating the quantity to be awarded in a wrongful-death declare.
The settlement is being paid totally by the insurance coverage firm.
“The insurance coverage corporations needed a reduction on the worth of the lifetime of Monique Muñoz,” mentioned Muñoz household lawyer Daniel Ghyczy. “It was by no means about what amount of cash my shoppers would obtain for them or for us, it was about ensuring that the insurance coverage corporations knew they might by no means get a reduction.”
Muñoz’s automobile was struck Feb. 17, 2021, within the intersection of Olympic Boulevard and Overland Avenue by a Lamborghini being pushed at over 100 mph. The crash cut up Muñoz’s automobile in half, and he or she died on the scene.
The then-17-year-old son of L.A. multimillionaire James Khuri was sentenced to a number of months at a juvenile camp after pleading responsible to vehicular manslaughter. The Instances usually doesn’t establish juveniles accused of crimes and has not printed the teenager driver’s title, however Khuri spoke out final 12 months in public about his son’s involvement and apologized to the Muñoz household.
Based on the Muñoz household’s criticism, the quantity provided by Chubb Insurance coverage for the wrongful-death declare was considerably lower than it had paid to the household of a white Manhattan Seashore teenager who was killed in a automobile collision in 2014.
“From the beginning, it was clear from the insurance coverage firm’s posturing that they had been taking race into consideration when doing their valuation of Monique Muñoz’s life for the needs of this declare,” Ghyczy mentioned.
Ghyczy declined to establish the opposite case however mentioned the declare quantity for Muñoz was “hundreds of thousands of {dollars}” lower than the one paid to the Manhattan Seashore household.
“My shoppers wish to guarantee that insurance coverage corporations don’t get to say that as a result of it was Monique Muñoz from Hawthorne, California, that was killed, that in some way the household goes to be discounted, versus some wealthy white child from Beverly Hills,” he mentioned.
“We truly gave [Chubb] the chance to take away the insurance coverage firm from the lawsuit in the event that they had been keen to offer a written declaration stating that that they had not thought-about Monique Muñoz’s race or ancestral historical past of their analysis of the declare, and so they refused to try this,” he mentioned. “Studying between the strains, it appears very evident that the insurance coverage firm was taking race into consideration.”
Attorneys for Chubb Insurance coverage declined to remark.
Ghyczy acknowledged that the settlement was one of many largest single-plaintiff wrongful-death lawsuits in state historical past, however he mentioned there was little to have a good time.
“There’s no trophy or plaque or something that’s going to deliver [the family’s] daughter again, and that’s all they care about,” he mentioned.
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