Alarm Company Settles with Minnesota Woman’s Estate

ADT Security Services Inc. has reached a settlement in a lawsuit over a failed home burglar alarm with the estate of a mother of four children.

The amount ADT will pay to care for Teri Lee’s children is confidential. But family attorney Bill Harper calls it substantial.

The 38-year-old Lee, and her boyfriend, Timothy Hawkinson, were shot dead in her rural Washington County home in 2006, just weeks after she bought an ADT alarm to protect herself against her ex-boyfriend, Steven Van Keuren of River Falls, Wis., who was sentenced to life without parole.

The Star Tribune reported Sunday the settlement reached Friday could hold implications for homeowners who trust intrusion alarms to protect them, and for alarm companies that rely on contract language to insulate themselves from liability.