A Bedford County woman has returned home from living in a hotel for a year and a half because more than a hundred gallons of heating oil was pumped into her basement.

Robyn Whorley sued Chatham-based Davenport Energy and Sweet's Heating & Air Conditioning in Moneta for $500,000, but the civil case was settled last month before it made it to Bedford County Circuit Court.

Sam Patel, Whorley's attorney, said he could not discuss the details of the private settlement.

Hal Thornton, a vice president at Davenport Energy, also declined to comment because the terms of the agreement are confidential, he said.

No one from Matt-Grant Holdings in Nellysford, the parent company of Sweet's Heating & Air Conditioning, could be reached for comment.

According to Whorley and court papers, on Dec. 27, 2007, an oil company employee pumped the heating oil in through an exterior fill pipe, thinking it was connected to a storage tank inside the Windy Ridge Drive home.

But Whorley had the tank removed months earlier when she switched to propane heat and canceled automatic oil delivery. The oil splashed and pooled in the floor of the partly finished basement, and the fumes permeated the belongings of Whorley and her college-aged children.

The family had to evacuate, and Whorley spent the next 500-plus nights at an extended stay hotel in Lynchburg. Whorley said last year that Davenport Energy was paying for her hotel stay.

Whorley, an Amherst County High School guidance counselor, said in an earlier interview the situation had turned her life upside down and left her feeling like she had nowhere to go.