against the Bermuda Government.

Government is said to have paid out a "high five figure'' sum in damages.

The Herkommer family's lawyer Mr. Saul Froomkin said his clients were satisfied with the out-of-court settlement.

"They are satisfied with the attitude taken by the Bermuda Government,'' he added. "And they are pleased that this matter has now been concluded.'' Miss Herkommer, a 27-year-old school teacher from Baden-Wurtemburg, was killed in 1992 by a Casemates prisoner on an unsupervised work release scheme at the Maritime Museum in Dockyard.

Convicted rapist Leroy Elmer Burgess -- also named in the lawsuit -- received a life sentence after admitting manslaughter with diminished responsibility.

At his Supreme Court trial he was branded a brutal psychopath.

Psychiatrists said there was no known cure for him and they could not rule out the possibility of him killing again.

Mr. Froomkin said an allegation of negligence formed the basis for the lawsuit, which was taken out last year.

It had been negligent to allow a person with a record of violence to walk around unsupervised, he explained.

Mr. Froomkin refused to divulge the size of the settlement.

"All I can say it that was a high five-figure amount.'' On the action against Burgess, Mr. Froomkin replied: "It has been discontinued.'' Yesterday Government's lawyer Mr. Alan Dunch said the settlement had been reached last month to the "satisfaction of all concerned''. But he did not wish to comment further.

The settlement follows months of discussions between the parties.

Shortly before the settlement, Mr. Dunch told The Royal Gazette : "The parties are talking to each other on a `without prejudice' basis. That means that something may come of it, something may not. But if nothing does, the matter proceeds as if the discussions never took place.

"I believe that the matter will be resolved to the mutual satisfaction of all concerned in the fullness of time. As things currently stand, I have no reason to think that the current action will proceed any further.'' Miss Herkommer was killed after coming to Bermuda to visit her sister, Christine, an expatriate worker.

She was strangled to death by Burgess after he dragged her into the tunnel of the Maritime Museum.

Burgess' sentence means he could spend 25 years in prison, although he will be eligible for parole after 15 years.

The sentence was roundly condemned by Christine Herkommer.

The $10 million-plus lawsuit launched by the family of Ms Wendy Wilkinson over her death at Bermuda's hospital should go to trial this year.

Mr. Froomkin, the family's lawyer, said the matter was "still pending''.

The suit against the Bermuda Hospitals Board and surgeon Dr. James King follows the September 1991 inquest on the death of the 34-year-old businesswoman.

A coroner's jury ruled Ms Wilkinson had died from an accident "aggravated by a lack of professional care''.