Sunbeam Blood pressure Monitor

CHICAGO, Aug. 2— The American Medical Association will pay the Sunbeam Corporation $9.9 million after pulling out of a deal to endorse the company's humidifiers, blood-pressure monitors and other products.

The association backed out of the deal after being criticized because it had no plans to test the products.

The chairman of the association's board, Dr. Randolph Smoak Jr., said on Friday that the settlement of $7.9 million in damages and $2 million for expenses, including legal fees, closed a chapter in the group's history ''once and for all.''

''The A.M.A. is now fully focused on its historic mission to serve America's patients and the quality of American medicine, '' Dr. Smoak said.

The settlement averts a trial, which had been scheduled for Nov. 2 in Federal District Court in Chicago.

The association was to receive millions of dollars in royalties under a five-year agreement in which it would give a ''seal of approval'' to the Sunbeam products.

An association committee that investigated the deal blamed the group's staff and said the directors had not been informed. The incident led to the dismissal of five members of the association's staff, including the former executive vice president, Dr. P. John Seward.

After the association backed out of the deal, Sunbeam filed a $20 million breach-of-contract lawsuit. Neither Sunbeam nor the company that handles its public relations responded on Saturday to requests for comment that were left at the company's headquarters in Delray Beach, Fla.

Dr. Arnold Relman, a member of the association and former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, said the settlement was a defeat for the group's rank and file.

''I think if we'd gone to trial, '' Dr. Relman said on Saturday, ''probably a lot more relevant information would have been uncovered and made available to the membership. As a result of this settlement, we will never know the truth of what happened. It does not let the sun shine in.''