Paul Walker’s daughter gets $13 million in settlement

THE teenage daughter of late actor Paul Walker has reached a multi-million dollar settlement with the estate of the man driving the car that killed them both.

Paul Walker

THE 17-year-old daughter of late actor Paul Walker has reached a $US10.1 million ($A13.5 million) settlement with the estate of the man driving the car that crashed and killed them both in 2013, her lawyer says.

Walker was a passenger in a 2005 Porsche Carrera GT driven by Roger Rodas when the car, travelling at speeds of 129 to 150km/h, careened into trees and a utility pole in Santa Clarita, northwest of Los Angeles.

Meadow Walker’s lawyer, Jeff Milam, said today the settlement would go into a trust for the teenager.

The settlement, reached in November 2014, went unnoticed for nearly a year-and-a-half because it was filed under “Meadow W”, according to celebrity news website TMZ, which first reported the story.

Actor Paul Walker was just 40 when he died.

Paul Walker and daughter Meadow when she was a baby.

According to Milam’s statement, Rodas was only partially responsible for the crash, and the settlement covers a “fraction of what her father would have earned as an international movie star had his life not been tragically cut short”.

Lawyers for Rodas’ estate could not immediately be reached for comment.

Walker’s death at age 40 led to a lull in production of Furious 7, the latest movie in the mega-hit action series about illegal street racing that propelled his career.

The 2015 film grossed more than $US1.5 billion worldwide, making it among the highest-earning films of all time.

Milam said the actor’s daughter was continuing her lawsuit against Porsche AG and that she “intends to hold the company responsible for producing a vehicle that was defective and caused Paul Walker’s death”.

Paul Walker first gained international fame in 2001 for his portrayal of Brian O’Conner in the street racing action film The Fast and the Furious.

Meadow Walker, the actor’s only child and sole heir, filed the complaint against the German automaker last September, accusing it of skimping on safety features that could have prevented the crash or at least kept him alive.

Porsche has maintained that the actor was responsible for his own death.

After a four-month investigation Los Angeles officials said the crash was caused by excessive speed, not mechanical failure.

Milam said Paul Walker survived the impact of the crash, but “burned to death because of Porsche’s defective design”.

A federal judge presiding over a similar lawsuit filed by Rodas’ estate against Porsche in Los Angeles ruled in favour of the car company on Monday, saying: “Plaintiff has provided no competent evidence that Rodas’ death occurred as a result of any wrongdoing on the part of Defendant.”

Originally published as Paul Walker’s daughter gets $13 million in settlement