Lips Are Sealed on Settlement Over Condo Kiss : Dispute: Santa Ana grandmother reprimanded by condominium association for the incident says she now intends to push for a ‘bill of rights for homeowners.’

Six months after the good-night kiss heard round the world, a Santa Ana grandmother announced Monday that she has agreed to settle her differences with her condominium association over a reprimand she received.

Helen (Kim) Garrett, 52, said she received a check Monday from the association to end the dispute. Although she would not say how much she got, Garrett said: “I’m very happy with the entire agreement.”

While the legal issues in the case have been settled, Garrett said she now intends to use the publicity to push for “a bill of rights for homeowners” in California, ensuring protections against privacy infringement by homeowners’ associations and other groups. She said she has already talked with some state officials about possible legislation.

A financial consultant and grandmother of two, Garrett became a sort of folk hero in June, when newspapers, magazines and TV shows across the country and elsewhere picked up on the story of “hot lips”--as some dubbed her.

One night in early May, Garrett said, she was parked outside her Santa Ana condominium for a few minutes with a friend and gave him a kiss good night as she left the car. Garrett said she was later shocked and embarrassed to see a notice on a condominium bulletin board, accusing her of breaking the regulations of the Town Square Owners Assn., which governs her complex.

“Resident seen parking in circular driveway kissing and doing bad things for over 1 hour,” the notice from the condominium managers read.

So began an imbroglio that prompted letters to the editor and public debate across the Southland over just how far homeowners’ associations could go in regulating the lives of their members.

While Town Square directors and managers have declined to discuss the case in detail, their lawyers have maintained that the whole episode has been a misunderstanding.

The association issued an apology to Garrett in June, after the story broke, saying that the reprimand was not intended for her, but rather for a pair of young lovers who had been spotted in the driveway that same night. And the lawyers have asserted that the association sent its notice about the incident directly to Garrett’s address and never posted it publicly.

“We don’t intend to regulate kissing,” David E. Cane, an Irvine attorney representing the association, said Monday. “That is not what this is about. We were trying to enforce a parking regulation, and we will continue to do so.”

Nonetheless, Cane said, “one of the reasons the association decided to settle this is because they didn’t see the need to incur any more expenses in attorney’s fees. . . .

“It’s an unfortunate incident to have really received the attention of the whole country as it has. I’m just glad it’s resolved.”

Cane said he pushed for a confidential settlement because “the amount (of the payment) is not something the public needs to be concerned with.”

Both the Town Square association and the management company at the time of the incident--Vanco Property--were parties to the negotiations. Garrett and her lawyer, Gloria Allred of Los Angeles, had threatened to sue for defamation and invasion of privacy if a settlement was not reached.

Allred said of the case: “I think it’ll make condo associations think twice before they interfere with an individual homeowner’s right to privacy. . . . They have no right to prohibit anyone from kissing good night.”

Garrett said she would rather have avoided the attention that the kiss focused on her. But she said the incident has produced some funny moments, such as questions from teen-agers worried about possible bans on kissing.

“And I don’t mind the publicity if it makes a difference” in securing greater privacy rights for condominium owners, she said.

As for the man in the car that night, Garrett said the two have laughed about the incident after more recent good-night kisses, “and he’s been very supportive.”