Mother, After Nursing Son, Sues Him for $270,000 : Court: The quadriplegic man was awarded $2 million after a 1986 biking accident. His mother says he vowed she would be compensated for providing care.

A Long Beach woman sued her quadriplegic son last week, claiming that he owed her $270,000 for taking care of him after he was severely injured in a bicycle accident.

In the suit, Sophia Mallory, 61, claims that her son, 38-year-old John Mallory II, failed to keep his promise to repay her for her services after he won a $2-million settlement for his injuries.

The suit was filed in Orange County Superior Court because Mallory was hospitalized in Fountain Valley after the accident, and his father petitioned the court there to become 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.”

Mallory, a former Long Beach sanitation worker, said last week that he was not aware of the suit and declined further comment.

His spinal cord was severed 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 without the use of his arms and legs.

After the accident, Mallory moved back home, where his mother assumed his primary care, aided by a part-time attendant. Sophia Mallory fed, bathed, and provided other services for her son including “respiratory assistance, bowel, and bladder care,” for six years, 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, said the mother’s lawyer, Tracy H. Ettinghoff of Laguna Niguel.

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

The family agreed that if the son’s suit against the Los Angeles County Flood Control District failed, the parents would take care of him at home for as long as he lived, said the injured man’s father, John Walter Mallory, 62.

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, Ettinghoff said.

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.”

He added: “Prior to his receiving the award there was no problem.”

Mallory’s father is not a party to the suit. Earlier, for his work as conservator, the father claimed about $100,000 for services. The court awarded the father $91,000, said Ettinghoff, who 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.

The father called the legal action “a horrible situation. . . . It’s just been devastating.”

Ettinghoff said the mother’s lawsuit 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.”

The son was not a minor and was not living with the family when the bike wreck occurred, so his mother was under no legal obligation to care for him, 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.”