ORANGE : Boy Wins Settlement in Bike Accident

A 16-year-old boy won a settlement Friday from homeowners who left their private Santa Ana road in disrepair, allegedly causing a 1986 bicycle accident that rendered the teen-ager a paraplegic.

Under terms of a settlement signed Friday, the insurance carriers of 48 families who lived on Marles Drive, where the accident occurred, will purchase an annuity that will pay Brian Linen $5,359,647 over his lifetime, said Alton J. Smith, one of his lawyers.

Brian, then a 13-year-old honors student, was riding his bicycle along Marles Drive on Aug. 7, 1986, when potholes in the road caused him to lose control and veer into oncoming traffic, Smith said. The collision damaged his brain, leaving him a spastic paraplegic who is confined to a wheelchair.

Brian spent 3 1/2 years in hospitals and rehabilitation centers, racking up $800,000 in bills, Smith said. Soon after the accident, he had the mental capacity of a first-grader, but he has improved to about the fourth-grade level, Smith said.

Brian and his mother, Barbara Walker, who now live in Ohio, filed suit in Orange County Superior Court in 1987, naming all the homeowners on the street, the driver who struck Brian and the city of Santa Ana, Smith said.

The driver settled his portion for $50,000, Smith said, and the city was held not liable because the road was private. He said that Santa Ana refused to make the road public property until its cracks and potholes were filled but said that was never done.

The lawsuit proceeded against the homeowners. Attorneys agreed to let retired Superior Court Judge Jerrold Oliver help settle the case through Judicial Arbitration & Mediation Services Inc., a private organization of retired judges based in Orange.