VENTURA : Court Awards Gabor $200,000 Judgment in Suit Over Loan

Entertainer Zsa Zsa Gabor has been awarded $200,000 in Ventura County Superior Court, where she pressed a lawsuit against a woman who borrowed money from her in a business deal.

Gabor contends that she lost $55,000 in December, 1989, when San Diego resident Suzanne Wonderly and the entertainer’s accountant, Robert Lanham of Westlake, persuaded Gabor to loan Wonderly money in a complicated business transaction.

The suit contended that Wonderly promised a return of at least $200,000 by March, 1990.

Gabor never received that money, nor was the original $55,000 returned, she said. She filed the suit June 4.

Gabor’s attorney, Harrison Bull of Santa Barbara, said he had shown the business proposal to scholars, bankers and lawyers, “and not one of us has been able to understand it. She relied upon her accountant.”

Gabor won the case against Wonderly last week by default, but Bull is skeptical about finding Wonderly to collect the settlement. “Wonderly has disappeared,” he said.

Gabor now plans to file suit against Lanham in hopes of collecting the $200,000 from him, Bull said.

Lanham, who filed documents with the court claiming that Gabor made the decision on her own to loan the money to Wonderly, did not return phone calls from The Times last week.