Suit Over Collapsed Apartments Reportedly Settled : Quake: Sources say award to 28 plaintiffs exceeds $1 million. Sixteen people died in Northridge Meadows building.

A reported settlement of more than $1 million has been reached in a massive civil lawsuit over the collapse of the Northridge Meadows apartments, where 16 tenants died in the Jan. 17, 1994, earthquake.

The early settlement of the case means a jury will never decide whether the collapse of the three-story, 163-unit structure was due to shoddy construction, as the lawsuit contended, or was an act of God, as the defendants claimed.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, and San Fernando Superior Court Judge William MacLaughlin has ordered records of the agreement sealed.

But sources indicated that the settlement was relatively small--involving an insurance payment of more than $1 million, but less than $5 million, to be divided among the 28 people who sued.

“It’s not a huge amount of money,” said attorney Keith Koeller, who represented builder Heller Construction Co. of Westlake Village.

“I think we’re better off putting it to bed for all involved,” said Robert M. Freedman, lawyer for former owner Shasikant Jogani. “My client makes no admissions. We told everyone in the beginning that he did nothing wrong.

The 28 plaintiffs included relatives of the 16 people killed and tenants who were pried from the ruins of the pancaked first floor of the apartment building.

As is usual in such settlements, the defendants--including Jogani and builder Brian L. Heller and Heller Construction--admitted no wrongdoing.

Santa Monica attorney Joel B. Castro, who represented the plaintiffs, said proceeds from the settlement will be placed in trust, and that individual plaintiffs will later present evidence of their damages. A judge--not MacLaughlin--then will distribute the money.

Several plaintiffs said Monday that while they knew a settlement was brewing, they had not yet been told it was final.

“I think when all the facts are evaluated by the clients, they will be pleased,” Castro said. “You can never replace loss of life with money.”

Castro said the major impetus to settle the case came when the state Supreme Court two weeks ago overturned a controversial 1985 decision and limited the liability of landlords for injuries that occur on their property.

The court ruled that it had erred when it applied the legal doctrine of strict liability to residential landlords.

Castro said the Supreme Court’s decision “gave us the impetus” to accept the settlement.

Several plaintiffs in the lawsuit were unaware Monday that a settlement had been reached.

“I know we were in the closing of it,” said tenant Syd Dalven. “We’d better [get a good settlement.] I lost everything. . . . All my friends died.”

Castro had arranged for a controlled demolition of the building last year, during which experts pored over the surviving details of its construction. In the lawsuit, numerous building defects were alleged, including the failure to use plywood to brace walls, too few anchor bolts attaching the structure to its foundations, and inadequate connections between floors and walls, and walls and roofs.

Times staff writer Henry Chu contributed to this story .