Business Notes DISCRIMINATION

"I never wanted them to be able to do this to women ever again." That, said Muriel Kraszewski, 52, of Long Beach, Calif., was why she joined two other women in 1979 to sue State Farm Insurance for sex discrimination. The women had applied to be sales agents, but were turned down for no valid reason.

Last week their long legal battle ended in triumph. State Farm agreed to pay $420,822 each to Kraszewski and two other plaintiffs: Wilda Tipton, 45, of Ventura, Calif., and the estate of Daisy Jackson, who died in 1983. The settlement calls for possible payments of $15,575 to $420,822 to other women who applied for 1,113 sales-agent jobs in California during the past 13 1/2 years. State Farm believes the settlement will cost no more than $50 million, but the plaintiffs' attorney estimates that the bill will be as high as $300 million. That would make it the largest payout in the history of sex- discrimination suits.