$1.5 Million to Settle Wrongful-Death Suit? Busch IV Has Paid Bigger Bar Tabs

...and death, too!

​The Post-Dispatch reports this morning that August Busch IV will pay $1.5 million to settle a wrongful-death suit brought on behalf of the son of his deceased girlfriend, Adrienne Martin.

Martin died of a drug overdose at Busch IV's suburban St. Louis home in December. Prosecutors did not find enough evidence to charge the former CEO of Anheuser-Busch with any criminal wrongdoing, but her death left open a door for a civil suit.

Kevin Martin -- Adrienne Martin's ex-husband and a man who gets along well with Busch IV -- filed the suit on behalf of eight-year-old Blake Martin. The $1.5 million will go toward the boy's upbringing and could scuttle chances for other relatives of Adrienne Martin -- such as her estranged father -- from trying to collect on her death.

Busch IV reportedly pocketed about $100 million in the 2008 sale of Anheuser-Busch to InBev.

Another way to look at it: $1.5 million represents the interest payments Busch IV could earn by parking that $100 mil in a CD account for a year or two. Not bad.