Yet Betty Grissom, whose husband, Gus, died in the Apollo spacecraft fire in 1967, said: “It sounds like they did OK.” She said she received $350,000 in the settlement of her suit. “I’m suggesting that if I was representing them, I would not have allowed any of them to settle for the amount they received, of less than $2 million (per family).” “That settlement is woefully inadequate,” he said. Their suits were settled out of court, and Krist said he was under court order not to discuss the amount paid.īut he was blunt about the government-negotiated settlement. Resnik to file separate suits against Morton Thiokol only. McNair, a NASA employee, the father of Jarvis and the mother of mission specialist Judith A. Krist had been hired by the widow of mission specialist Ronald E. “If they’re happy, I’m happy for them,” Krist said of the four families that settled without filing lawsuits, “but I would never have put my stamp of approval for a settlement at the level that they received.” Krist, a Houston attorney who represented survivors of the astronauts killed in the Apollo fire in 1967, as well as three families from the Challenger disaster, said the four Challenger families should have received more money and would have if they had had formal legal representation. Only the Jarvis and McAuliffe relatives had a right to sue the government all the astronauts’ families could sue Morton Thiokol. 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. Lind said in an affidavit that no member of any of the families spoke with company representatives.
The Justice Department did all the negotiating for Morton Thiokol as well as the government. Lind Jr., the law partner of McAuliffe’s husband and executor of her estate. The four families used no lawyers in the negotiations but relied on informal advice from Leo B. Jarvis left his wife, Marcia, and McAuliffe left her husband, Steven, and two minor children. Onizuka left his wife, Lorna, and two minor children. Scobee is survived by his wife, June, and two adult children. and Sharon Christa McAuliffe, 37, a Concord, N. Jarvis, 41, an employee of Hughes Aircraft Co. Onizuka, 39, an Air Force lieutenant colonel payload specialist Gregory B. Scobee, 46, a retired Air Force officer employed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration mission specialist Ellison S. 29, 1986, with the immediate survivors of the spacecraft commander, Francis R. 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.
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