SAN FRANCISCO — In the largest civil rights case settlement in history, State Farm Insurance Co. said Tuesday that it will pay $157 million to 814 California women who had brought suit contending they were denied jobs as sales agents because of their sex.

The settlement, which is the climax of a 13-year legal battle, comes in addition to $36 million already recovered from the company in individual trials and agreements. Lawyers said that when all pending claims have been resolved, the total damages paid will probably exceed $200 million.

Under a unique separate arrangement, more than $320,000 --with more to come--was contributed by successful plaintiffs and their lawyers to 37 other plaintiffs who decided not to settle and lost their cases in court.

The settlement disclosed Tuesday stems from a class action suit filed in U.S. District Court here in 1979. Under a consent decree approved by U.S. District Judge Thelton E. Henderson in 1988, at least 50% of the new agents hired in California over a 10-year period by State Farm were to be women. Further negotiations led to the huge settlement.

Both sides said Tuesday that they welcomed the agreement as a way to vastly reduce time and costs and insure faster payments to the victims. Plaintiffs' lawyers said the mammoth size of the settlement was certain to deter sex bias in the workplace.

"This sends a pretty powerful message," said Guy T. Saperstein of Oakland, lead attorney for the women who sued. "This is substantial money, and would get any company's attention."

Jim Stahly, a spokesman for State Farm in Bloomington, Ill., said the settlement would shorten legal proceedings by five years, reduce attorney fees and speed money to women who suffered discrimination.

The pact will have no significant effect on the firm's overall financial health, nor will it result in rate increases, he said. Fortune magazine said recently that State Farm, the largest homeowner and auto insurance carrier in the nation, was worth $18 billion.

Stahly noted that State Farm in recent years has substantially increased the hiring of women, including 43% of all new sales agents being hired nationwide. Overall, women make up 15% of all sales agents. "We're just glad to get this piece of our past over and done with," he said.

The settlement is by far the largest involving discrimination of any kind--race, sex, religion or age--in a case brought under the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Saperstein said.