The town of Augusta has reached a settlement with the plaintiffs in a 2012 wrongful death lawsuit.The confidential settlement was approved last month by 12th District Circuit Judge Wesley Dalton in the suit filed by David Neier and Dawn Tucker, parents of Ella Neier, 16, Washington.Ella Neier died Oct. 22, 2010, when the car she was driving traveled off a section of Augusta Bottom Road referred to as the Augusta Parkway, in Warren County, and crashed into a lake along the road.The terms of the settlement currently are sealed as the case against other defendants proceeds.Two other entities, Three Creeks Village and Franklin County, were dismissed from the lawsuit in February, leaving only the city of Washington and Warren and St. Charles counties as defendants.Judge Dalton heard arguments last month on a motion to dismiss Washington and took those under advisement before and issuing a ruling June 10 denying that motion.The plaintiffs allege that the defendants failed to properly maintain and improve the roadway, leading to the fatal crash.The lawsuit states the plaintiffs are seeking in excess of $25,000 in damages plus court costs, attorney fees and other relief from each of the defendants.The 1.9-mile bottom road sits atop a levee and provides a link between Warren and St. Charles counties.The Augusta Parkway section is in Warren County but county officials have refused to maintain that section since it was rebuilt after the 1993 Missouri River flood with a grant obtained by the town of Augusta.The city of Washington, in the past, has graded the Augusta Parkway portion of the road at the request of the Augusta Town Board.But the city has denied the allegation by plaintiffs that the city provided gravel or granular material for the road.City officials have said in the past that they provided a road grader and operator to grade the existing gravel on the road but did not provide any additional material.The plaintiffs alleged in their argument that the road “should have been properly maintained” by the defendants including the city of Washington.“Plaintiffs’ complaint is about the way a roadway was maintained which was located across the river from the city of Washington, in a different county,” the city’s attorney argued in the motion for dismissal.The city also stated that the plaintiffs’ claims are prohibited by the Doctrine of Sovereign Immunity.The plaintiffs’ attorney cited exceptions to the sovereign immunity defense, alleging that Ella Neier’s death was due to “a public employee’s negligent operation of a motor vehicle in the course of his employment” and as a result of a dangerous condition of property that “a municipality exercised such dominion and control as to rise to an ownership interest.”