I think that Disney could offer a settlement now without any negative ramifications. It would be easy to say: "we wouldn't normally do this but Jack Kirby's contribution to Marvel was special".

It would be a nice gesture and would buy them a lot good will. I hope they do it.
I wish they would do what they did for Dave Cockrum a few years ago when he needed medical help. I don't know exactly what it was, but i think they gave him a chunk of money and said it was for character designs for Nightcrawler, Storm, and some of the other "new" X-men. They didn't have to say he created them, but they rewarded someone who really made significant contributions to the company, sort of like a bonus. That's my understanding, and some of you may be able to explain it better, but I thought it was a wonderful gesture by Marvel.