PORTLAND – The driver whose minivan hit and killed a pedestrian outside her home in Buxton has reached a $536,837 settlement with the victim’s elderly husband.

However, it remains unclear whether Wilmot Lewis, whose 78-year-old wife Ethel died in the crash, will ever receive the money, due to a dispute over the driver’s insurance status.

Lori Marston of Buxton was behind the wheel of a Dodge minivan that hit and killed 76-year-old Ethel Lewis on Dec. 4, 2006.

Police initially described the crash as a hit-and-run, but prosecutors later determined that Marston did stop and render assistance. No criminal charges were filed.

Wilmot Lewis, 85, filed a lawsuit last year, and last week a judge in Cumberland County Superior Court approved a settlement that would pay him more than half a million dollars.

But Lewis’ lawyer, Randall Smith, said that Marston cannot afford to pay the judgment.

Smith said that he will first try to enforce the judgment against GEICO, which he says was insuring Marston at the time of the crash, despite an effort by the company to cancel her policy.

GEICO disputes the claim that it was insuring Marston when the crash happened. A message left with the company was not immediately returned.

If Wilmot Lewis fails to recover the money from GEICO, his lawyer plans to seek payment from Farm Family Casualty Insurance Co., which was Ethel Lewis’s insurer at the time she died.

Paul Douglass, a lawyer for Farm Family, said the company is not admitting fault in the woman’s death.