Woman Seeking Care Payment Sues Quadriplegic Son : Courts: The Long Beach mother claims her 38-year-old son failed to keep his promise to repay her for her services after he was hurt in a bicycle accident.

A woman on Monday sued her quadriplegic son in Orange County Superior Court, claiming that he owes her $270,000 for taking care of him after a tragic 1986 bicycle accident.

In the suit, Sophia Mallory, 61, of Long Beach claims that her son, John Walter Mallory II, 38, failed to keep his promise to repay her for her services.

The suit was filed in Orange County because the younger Mallory was hospitalized in Fountain Valley after the accident, and his father petitioned the court here to act as his injured son’s conservator.

“It took me six years to finally go to court” to settle the matter, Sophia Mallory said. “It was a difficult choice. . . . It was a heartbreaker. He promised me he would compensate me. My marriage broke up twice over this.”

John Walter Mallory II, a former city sanitation worker who also lives in Long Beach, said Monday he was not aware of the suit and declined further comment.

Caring for her son after the debilitating accident, Sophia Mallory said, involved “a lot grief and heartache. It was very trying.”

She said that after accepting his promises of payment for years, “this time I’m going with my head and not my heart.”

Mallory’s father, John Walter Mallory, 62, is not a party to Monday’s suit. He called the legal action “a horrible situation. . . . It’s just been devastating.”

Mallory’s spinal cord was severed on Feb. 16, 1986, when he rode into a gate on the bike path along the Los Angeles River in north Long Beach. The accident led to a nine-month hospitalization and left him unable to use his arms and legs.

After the accident, John Mallory said, his son moved back home, where his mother assumed his primary care, with the exception of a part-time attendant.

The family agreed that if their suit against the Los Angeles County Flood Control District failed, they would take care of their son at home for as long as he lived, he said.

“Prior to his receiving the award, there was no problem,” Mallory’s father said.

In February, 1992, the Flood Control District agreed to a settlement, giving Mallory a lump sum of $2 million. Officials acknowledged that they had negligently maintained the accident site, according to Sophia Mallory’s attorney.

Mallory’s father then established a trust fund for his son and did not object when the younger Mallory petitioned the court to dissolve the conservatorship, enabling him to manage the trust. He later moved out of the family home.

“He wanted to be out on his own,” the father said. “He wanted to lead his own life, which is understandable.”

Sophia Mallory’s lawyer, Tracy H. Ettinghoff of Laguna Niguel, said the lawsuit between mother and son was a valid action for breach of contract and misrepresentation. He compared the court action to a divorce filing.

“We all know what happens in divorces. People get married and then they fight over the money,” Ettinghoff said. “There’s nothing different here because it’s a breach of trust. She took care of him with the expectation that she would be compensated and she wants her money now.”

Mallory had a verbal agreement with his mother to pay her if she took care of him, Ettinghoff said. For six years, Sophia Mallory fed, bathed and provided other services for her son, including “respiratory assistance, bowel and bladder care,” according to the lawsuit. She meticulously kept track of her hours: 19,000 hours at $15 per hour for a total of about $285,000. She’s willing to take $270,000, Ettinghoff said.

“The son was not a minor when the bike wreck occurred, so his mom was under no obligation to care for him,” Ettinghoff said, noting that he was not living with the family when the accident occurred.

For his work as conservator, Mallory’s father claimed about $100,000 for services similar to that provided by his wife for their son. The court awarded the father $91,000, said Ettinghoff, who said he represented the father in that action.

Sophia Mallory had filed a similar petition in probate court claiming $255,356, but withdrew it after her son promised to compensate her. He told his mother that her money was earning interest in a bank account, Ettinghoff said.

Ettinghoff said the fight over the money had soured the mother’s relationship with her son.

“She loves her son very much and she wanted him to have the best care,” Ettinghoff said. “But right now, their relations are strained because she feels betrayed. She is entitled to this money, and he is holding back.”