$160,000 Settlement Is Negotiated in Lawsuit Over Bull Terrier

Five people have agreed to pay $160,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a Northridge physician who contended they stole a championship dog from her back yard.

The case that began with the dognaping of Shavin-Kingsmere Notty Nada ended quietly with a negotiated settlement approved in Van Nuys Superior Court on Monday, almost four years after anyone involved in the case last saw the dog, which other breeders say was the most highly esteemed bull terrier in the nation when she disappeared.

Nada, the same breed as the beer-swilling Spuds McKenzie in the 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, the attorney who represented Patricia Walters, the doctor who filed the suit. “Everybody gets something--even Nada gets something this way.”

The defendants wanted a trial but were forced into the settlement by their insurance companies, which were paying their legal expenses, attorneys said.

One lawyer involved in the case from the beginning has 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 one 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 throughout 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 their reply that Walters was improperly training the animal and had plans to breed Nada without their 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.

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

Walters mistreated Nada, especially in terms of training her, Hoffman said.

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

They gave them the championship dog as a replacement, the defendants said. They would not say where the couple and the dog live. Their only continuing contact with the couple is an occasional postcard, they said.

Early in the lawsuit, members of the partnership went to jail rather than obey a judge’s order to produce the terrier. In an action that was fought all the way to the California Supreme Court, they were eventually allowed to conceal the dog’s whereabouts in return for posting a $15,000 bond guaranteeing its safety.

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

Edwards and his wife, Patricia, are responsible for $100,000 of the total settlement.

Insurance covering Lethin-Martin and her husband will pay the final $30,000. One expert involved in the case said the dog was worth as much as $300,000.