The agreement was announced by City Attorney Carmen Trutanich at a news conference Thursday afternoon. The city will write the women a check for $40,000 to replace their truck.
"I am happy to announce that this afternoon we reached a resolution with Margie Carranza and her mother Emma Hernandez to compensate them for the loss of their truck during the Christopher Dorner manhunt," Trutanich said.
Trutanich and the attorney for the women, Glen Jonas, say the negotiations were smooth.
"It was refreshing to deal with a lawyer whose approach was problem solving rather than problem making," Jonas said.
Carranza and her 71-year-old mother were delivering newspapers in their Toyota pickup truck in Torrance in the early hours of Feb. 7 when officers opened fire, believing the pickup truck belonged to Dorner, who had vowed revenge against the LAPD.
Hernandez was shot twice in the back, but survived. Carranza had a minor injury. The truck was riddled with bullets. A few days later, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck promised to find them a truck. But it all got bogged down with a tax issue. If the women received a donated truck, it would be considered a gift by the federal government, and the women would owe $10,000 in taxes.
Trutanich says there was one big legal issue, and the two sides came to an agreement.
"Paying part of a claim would seem to imply liability on the part of the city for making that payment, so we had to get through the liability issue," he said. "So this payment represents a non-admission of liability by either party."
The women's attorney says they are happy for this resolution, but they are still dealing with the trauma of what happened.
"Margie is still very emotionally impacted by what happened, and Emma is suffering as far as her injuries are concerned," Jonas said.
Officials say the settlement is separate from other claims that the two women will likely have against the city and the LAPD.
