HILO >> Hawaii County has agreed to pay $20,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a woman whose husband drowned in Punaluu Black Sand Beach during their 2008 honeymoon.

The County Council settled the lawsuit last week with Catherine Sneyers, of Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. The settlement comes after Sneyers appealed 3rd Circuit Court Judge Glenn Hara’s February ruling dismissing the case, West Hawaii Today reports.

Sneyers and her 40-year-old husband, Edward McCarthy-Slaughter, had been snorkeling when he drowned about 100 yards offshore. They had entered an area of water not owned by the county.

Sneyers argued that the county was responsible for posting surf warning signs in the area. Sneyers claimed the county had posted other signs there telling beachgoers not to take sand from the beach and to keep a safe distance from turtles.

The lower court judge had agreed that the county had a duty to warn beachgoers of dangerous conditions at the beach, but said that responsibility stopped at property lines.

"Once you have a danger adjacent to that beach park, it gives rise to the duty to warn," Hara said at the Feb. 6 hearing, according to transcripts. "(If I am the county), and — and let’s say there are dangerous conditions all along that coast, how far down do I have to warn people, you know, you can’t go swimming two miles down, mile-and-a-half down from this park?"

Deputy Corporation Counsel Laureen Martin said that the county was optimistic it would have won on appeal, but noted that there were "potential weaknesses in the case."

"Ultimately, this settlement avoided significant risks and uncertainty," she said. "The amount is also far less than the costs the county would have incurred in order to defend the action."