CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SACRAMENTO : Family of Quake Victim Gets $150,000

The State Board of Control in Sacramento awarded $150,000 to the family of a man killed in the Nimitz Freeway collapse in Oakland during the Oct. 17 earthquake, the first payment to a Nimitz victim by the state. Deputy Executive Officer Curt Soderlund said the panel, which handles claims against the state, agreed to pay $50,000 each to the wife and two children of Juan-Daniel Luis Rubi, 28, of San Francisco. Rubi was one of 42 people who died on the freeway when a mile and a half of it collapsed in the 7.1-magnitude quake. Qualifying relatives of people killed on the freeway or the Bay Bridge are eligible for emergency payments of $50,000 each, or $200,000 for a family unit, Soderlund said. Rubi family members may now move to a second, more protracted phase of the claims program, in which survivors and victims’ families negotiate with the state for a final settlement ending the government’s liability.