LEGAL FILE

A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit against Dustin Hoffman and three other defendants that stemmed from the accidental drowning of a woman on the actor’s Roxbury, Conn., estate in 1986. Although the amount of the settlement was not disclosed as part of the terms of the agreement, Hoffman will pay nothing to the estate of Sheila Cruse Fionda. The lawsuit, filed in Superior Court of Litchfield County by Fionda’s former husband on behalf of their son, claimed wrongful death and negligence in Fionda’s drowning on Aug. 24, 1986. Hoffman was not at the estate then, but his caretaker at that time, Albion Dudley, had gone out to dinner with Fionda the night before her 4 a.m. death. Fionda, 43, a teacher, was found floating face down about 6 a.m. in the hot-tub portion of a swimming pool on Hoffman’s estate. An autopsy showed her blood-alcohol count was three times the legal limit for drunken driving in Connecticut. In addition to Hoffman and Dudley, the lawsuit also named the tub installer and the company that made the tub’s heating element. The lawsuit did not specify damages sought, but Fionda’s attorney said last year the family would settle for $200,000.