Lion Case Hangs in Balance : County Tries Again Today to Kill Suit Over Cougar Attack

A few months ago, 7-year-old Laura Small came home from one of her frequent visits to the doctor, upset and in tears. “I’ll never be able to be a doctor because I can’t use my right hand!” her mother recalls her saying.

Almost 3 years after she was mauled by a mountain lion in Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park, Small has lost none of the determination and exuberance that have contributed to what doctors call a remarkable recovery. But at the same time, the child is only now having to confront her remaining physical limitations.

Small’s family, worried about the effect that such limitations may have on the girl’s future, are now seeking to collect several million dollars from Orange County in damages--and they should know today whether they can continue their legal pursuit.

At a pivotal court hearing this morning, a Superior Court judge is expected to consider one last appeal by the county to kill the lawsuit before it can move toward a trial or settlement.

a 3-Year Legal Battle

In a series of legal maneuverings that have been exceedingly lengthy even for the civil courts, attorneys for the county have battled for nearly 3 years to have the Smalls’ case thrown out. They have scored courtroom victories on several occasions, arguing in part that county government, which oversees the park near San Juan Capistrano, is immune from such liability.

But attorneys for the Smalls--maintaining that the county failed to warn park-goers about the known threat of mountain lions and, in fact, enhanced the danger--prevailed last November in the latest round to keep the suit alive.

Unless county lawyers today can persuade Superior Court Judge William F. Rylaarsdam to find the county blameless, the case will proceed and evidence for the first time will be heard.

“This is really a critical stage of the suit for us,” said Wylie A. Aitken, attorney for the Smalls. “If and when we get past these legal technicalities, I feel comfortable that we’re in a strong position on the merits of our case.”

Aitken argues that the county, through brochures and park signs, lulled the public into thinking that Caspers Park was safe when the opposite was true. He also alleges that the operators of the county-run park in effect “lured” wild animals into contact with the public by the placement of water and shrubbery around the park and by allowing picnickers.

And the result of the county’s dangerous park policies, Aitken says, proved nearly fatal when Laura Small was mauled by a mountain lion March 23, 1986, near a campsite where the family had been picnicking and fishing for tadpoles.

Dennis Bunker, the county’s claims manager in the Risk Management Office, responded Tuesday: “We deny all those charges. . . . These parks are safe to visitors--though I don’t know about small children wandering off by themselves.”

More Cougars Reported

Authorities killed the mountain lion thought to have attacked Laura. But last week, a county report disclosed that at least 17 mountain lions now roam much of the same region.

Attorneys representing the county could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Laura, meanwhile, is unconcerned about the legal debate.

The money would be nice, she said at her El Toro home Tuesday. She’d like to buy a chandelier for her room. And maybe some “fancy dresses” that she has seen at the mall. And there are medical bills to pay, she realizes.

But on the whole, the second-grader says she tries not to think about the legal haggling that surrounds her, leaving that to her parents and lawyers. “I don’t really care about it. I have better things to do,” she said.

After 13 operations in the last 3 years, Laura seems to be overcoming her physical injuries and keeping herself busy.

Through physical therapy and ballet classes, she has regained most of the mobility in her right leg, which had been left partially paralyzed by the attack.

Covered by Contact Lens

Her once-disfigured right eye is sightless but now covered by a cosmetic, blue-tinted contact lens that makes it appear nearly identical to her left eye.

And in a successful operation last October, doctors implanted a plate to cover a damaged part of her skull where the brain was left tenuously exposed. That allowed her to do away with a protective helmet that she had previously worn to school and during play.

The most debilitating vestige of the attack today is Laura’s partially paralyzed right hand and arm. Doctors say she will likely never regain full use.

But even there, Laura has progressed to the point that she can grip the barre in ballet class--an impossible task just a few months ago--and has some greater movement and flexibility in the arm.

Laura has put her newly regained physical abilities to full use, pirouetting in ballet class, jumping rope on the playground and--despite her mother’s reluctance--snow-sledding on a trip East over the winter.

She has also conquered a fear of dogs--”Just the big dogs, not the little poodles,” she explains--that was a remnant of the mountain lion attack. Once afraid that dogs would bite her, she has since talked her parents into adopting a stray mutt named Ebony, who is her frequent playmate.

Wants to Go to a Park Again

And although the family has not ventured to a park since Laura’s accident, she says: “I would like to go to a park--but a different one (than Caspers) and get tadpoles again.”

“It’s really amazing to see how she’s progressed,” said Laura’s mother, Susan Mattern-Small. “It’s been a very difficult 3 years, but I kind of feel now like we’re starting over--that the worst is behind us.

“I try to be really optimistic about her future, and her optimism and the way she just keeps trying really help me.”

“She’s always been a child who always knew what she wanted. But as she gets older, she’s just now beginning to realize that there may be things she can’t do because of the accident, that there are limitations,” Mattern-Small said.

For instance, she has difficulty using her right hand to play the piano. So, her mother--a former piano teacher--has had to teach her some melodies she can play with just her left hand.

Worries Remain

Such limitations--and the prospect of future medical complications--bother Mattern-Small because she feels that Laura’s tragedy was a preventable one.

It is a sense of fairness--as much as money--that Mattern-Small says drives her and husband, Donald, an optical engineer, to pursue their lawsuit against the county.

“I don’t want to be bitter,” the mother says, “but I want to see that the people who are to blame for what happened to Laura are held responsible. I would like for (county officials) to stand up and acknowledge: ‘Yes, we’re responsible, and this shouldn’t have happened.’ ”