The $160,000 Dog : Settlement Ends Lawsuit Over the Custody of Champion Bull Terrier

A case that began with the dog-naping of Shavin-Kingsmere Notty Nada ended quietly with the negotiated settlement of a lawsuit Monday, almost four years after anyone involved had seen the champion bull terrier.

Five people have agreed to pay $160,000 to settle the suit filed in Van Nuys Superior Court by a Northridge physician who contended they stole the dog from her back yard.

Nada, the same breed as the beer-promoting Spuds McKenzie of TV commercials, now lives with a mysterious couple known only as Helen and Jim. The pooch will stay with the couple, according to the five defendants, who gained control of the animal as part of the settlement.

“The dog’s got to have a life too,” said Major Alan Langer, an attorney who represented Patricia Walters, the doctor who filed the suit. The defendants wanted a trial but were forced into the settlement by insurance companies paying their legal expenses, attorneys said. One lawyer involved in the case since it began estimated that legal expenses on all sides have topped $400,000.

Walters, a podiatrist who paid $600 for Nada as a puppy, filed the suit April 5, 1990, about a month after the dog was removed from her back yard.

But there was a shared ownership agreement between Walters and Shavin-Kingsmere--the breeding partnership that sold the dog to her. That agreement called for Shavin-Kingsmere trainers to present the animal at dog shows across North America, and to supervise her breeding.

Walters contended in her lawsuit that the trainers used unethical methods to show the dog, while Shavin-Kingsmere contended in a reply that Walters was improperly training the animal and had plans to breed Nada without the partnership’s consent.

Walters “in effect stole the dog by refusing to give up possession to the other owners,” said attorney Robert Armstrong, who initially represented all the defendants in the case.

One defendant, William Edwards of Glendale, admittedly climbed over a block wall into Walters’ back yard, grabbed the dog and handed it over the wall to Robert Bollong, an off-duty Orange County sheriff’s deputy.

“He saw this dog was distressed,” said attorney Nathan B. Hoffman, who represented Linda Lethin-Martin and her husband, Terry Martin, of Anaheim, participants in the Shavin-Kingsmere partnership.

Members of the partnership said in court documents that while attending a dog show, they met a couple they will identify only as Helen and Jim whose bull terrier had recently died.

They gave them the championship dog as a replacement, the defendants said.

Bollong, a 12-year veteran of his department, maintained that he did nothing wrong because he was merely helping a friend retrieve property held hostage in a business dispute. Nevertheless, the holders of his homeowners’ insurance policy will pay Walters $30,000 under personal liability provisions.

Edwards and his wife, Patricia, are responsible for $100,000 of the total settlement. Insurance covering Lethin-Martin will pay the final $30,000.