Amputee to Sue Over Ouster from Apartment : Lawsuit: He plans to charge owners with discrimination against handicapped. He was told to get rid of the dog that helps him get around or to leave the building.

On the campus of Orange Coast College, Jeff Smithling and his dog are a familiar sight: A double amputee, Smithling streaks to his classes and back perched on a skateboard, with Lightning pulling him like a sled dog.

The dog, a Staffordshire terrier and a member of the pit bull family, is not only the muscle behind Smithling’s mobility, but a friend.

But some residents of the Costa Mesa apartment complex where Smithling lived with his fiancee and two housemates were not comfortable with having even a pit bull cousin ambling about.

Smithling was evicted from the complex last month and he says it was because of his dog.

An attorney for the landlord argued that with or without the dog, Smithling had no right to be there because his name was not on the lease. And a Municipal Court judge agreed.

Still, Smithling felt he was forced to choose between leaving the apartment and getting rid of Lightning--which would have robbed him of his transportation.

He left the apartment.

Smithling’s attorney is planning to file an appeal next week of last month’s decision by Municipal Judge Edward L. Laird. And a lawsuit charging the management with discrimination against the handicapped will follow, they say.

“We had a lot of community support, but the issue of whether he was a true tenant, or whether he was trespassing, will have to be resolved before we can move on to a discrimination suit,” said Smithling’s lawyer, Moses Hall.

Before the move, Lightning would pull Smithling the four miles between the Villa Marseilles Apartments on Bristol Street and Orange Coast College, where Smithling is an engineering student. Smithling suffers from an arthritic disease, and his legs were amputated above the knees less than a year ago.

Now, Smithling and his fiancee, Trisha Langley, have found a three-bedroom house in Costa Mesa, not far from the college. Smithling said a schoolmate of his who manages apartments offered him the house for rent when he heard of his situation.

“We have a back yard, and a doggy door and a fireplace,” said Smithling about the new house. “The counters and the stove are down low for me so I can reach them.

“All we have to do now is find some roommates,” he said.

Steven D. Silverstein, attorney for the apartment complex, said he is about to file a motion to recover attorney fees for his clients. He is not worried about a discrimination lawsuit, he said.

“He has no standing,” he said. “His name wasn’t even on the lease. He was a guest of the other two girls, he did not have a relationship with my clients (the manager) and his credit is God-awful,” he said.

Smithling argued at a hearing in the case that his credit record had nothing to do with the matter. He maintained that the manager did know he was living there because she issued him a front door security key and assigned him a space in the parking lot.

“It is a case of discrimination,” he said.