Topeka ? Westar Energy Inc. has agreed to settle a series of shareholder lawsuits for $32.5 million, the utility said Friday.

Topeka-based Westar, the largest electric utility in Kansas, said it would pay $1.25 million, with its insurers picking up the rest. Company officials said they agreed to a settlement to avoid the costs of continued litigation and that the settlement didn’t admit liability of the company or any defendants.

The U.S. District Court in Topeka still must approve the deal, the company said.

Investors filed suit against Westar in 2003, claiming they weren’t told key details about a plan to restructure the company in 2001. That plan would have merged Westar’s regulated businesses with a New Mexico utility and spun off its unregulated operations to a separate company called Westar Industries.

The shareholders alleged that the new company would have left its debt with the regulated utility and that key executives pushing the deal, including former chief executive David Wittig, stood to receive huge cash payments from the change.

Kansas regulators eventually nixed the deal but not before stock prices plummeted.

An investigation by a law firm hired by Westar alleged that Wittig, former chief strategy officer Douglas Lake and other officials took advantage of internal controls for personal gain.

Much of that report was used as the basis for federal criminal charges against Wittig and Lake, who are scheduled to go on trial for a second time next month. Their first trial ended in a mistrial in December when jurors were unable to reach a verdict on more than half of the 40 charges facing each man.

Wittig and Lake have said their actions were not illegal and were done with the knowledge and support of Westar board members.

The shareholder suits name a number of former and current company executives and board members. Among them are former board members Gene Budig, former Kansas University chancellor, and Frank Becker of Lawrence, chairman of the Kansas University Endowment Association and a past chairman of the Kansas Board of Regents; both men resigned from Westar’s board in May 2003.

A Westar spokesman, in announcing the settlement Friday, took aim at departed officials, not anyone still with the company.

“This is one more matter dealing with actions under former management that we are relieved to have closed,” vice president of public affairs Jim Ludwig said in a release.

Westar said Friday that as part of the settlement of the shareholder lawsuits, it will not seek reimbursement from its insurance companies for legal costs, such as attorneys fees, for the shareholder lawsuits or the criminal prosecution of Wittig and Lake. The company still can seek reimbursement from Wittig and Lake for legal fees advanced to them.

The utility said the settlement didn’t include ongoing litigation related to its employee retirement plan or its ongoing arbitration with Wittig and Lake over millions of dollars in deferred salary and other benefits.