Dodgers Settle Man’s $5 Million Suit Out of Court

The Dodgers reached an out-of-court settlement Wednesday with a Northern California man who had filed a $5 million civil suit against the team and two former players, Reggie Smith and Davey Lopes, stemming from an altercation in the stands at Candlestick Park in San Francisco five years ago.

No terms were announced, as court-ordered confidentiality was included in the terms of the settlement agreement. But it is believed that the plaintiff, Michael B. Dooley, will receive a six-figure settlement from the Dodgers, who were named in the suit as defendants, along with Smith and Lopes. Also named in the suit were team owner Peter O’Malley and Manager Tom Lasorda.

The settlement appears to be a substantial one, inasmuch as Dooley’s attorney, Joseph W. Carcione, had stated that his client had required less than $1,000 in medical attention for injuries sustained in the altercation, which took place on Sept. 24, 1981.

“I simply cannot say anything,” Carcione said Wednesday night, “but my client and I are quite satisfied. My client is very happy and satisfied.”

Santiago Fernandez, assistant secretary and general counsel for the Dodgers, was unavailable for comment Wednesday night.

Dooley, 42, who was a resident of Redwood City when he filed the suit in March, 1982, now lives in Santa Clara.

In the suit, Dooley was seeking damages for alleged assault and battery after Smith and Lopes entered the stands during a Giants-Dodgers game. In the course of the incident, Carcione said, Dooley threw a plastic batting helmet at Smith. When police arrived to break up the altercation, Carcione said, Dooley suffered a sprained wrist, three broken ribs and a couple of broken knuckles.

The suit also alleged that the Dodgers were negligent in not exercising better control of their players.

Smith, who is out of baseball now, was fined $5,000 and suspended five days by the National League after the incident. No punitive action was taken against Lopes, who is now with the Chicago Cubs.

O’Malley had flown to San Francisco Tuesday to testify in the case, which was in the process of jury selection when the settlement was reached. Depositions also had been taken from Lasorda, National League president Charles (Chub) Feeney and the players involved. A videotape of the incident also had been expected to be entered as evidence in the trial, scheduled to be heard in San Francisco Superior Court.

A possible clue to the Dodgers’ decision to settle might be found in an account of the incident published in a book written by former Dodger Jay Johnstone, who originally was named as a defendant in the suit but later was dropped.

” . . . In a way, Lasorda was the instigator,” Johnstone wrote in “Temporary Insanity,” a book he co-authored with L.A. Daily News columnist Rick Talley.

Johnstone wrote that Smith made a comment to Lasorda about a peanut vendor--”an old guy, maybe 90 years old.

” . . . Reggie says, ‘Hey, Tommy, there’s a guy up here who says he once played baseball with you,”’ Johnstone wrote.

” . . . I don’t want to repeat what he (Lasorda) said. But Reggie won’t leave it (the vendor) alone.

” . . . Now some kids who had been drinking beer, and I mean a lot of beer, start yelling, ‘Hey leave the guy alone,’ to Reggie.

” . . . From there it’s all downhill. . . . And I walk past Lasorda and say, ‘See what you started?”’