Pokémon's True Worth

10/21/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

Rudy Donithan-Treat, an 11-year-old student at O'Hara Park Middle School in Oakley, Calif., won a $1,500 legal judgment against his school. Its offense? A school monitor confiscated -- and then lost -- the sixth grader's collection of 161 Pokémon cards. Originally, Rudy sued the school district in January for $5,000 after trustees rejected a $500 claim. So the enterprising young man took his case into small claims court, where Judge John M. Allen ruled that once school officials took the cards, they were responsible for them. He based the award on estimates of the value of the cards provided by Rudy's family and the school district. With his $1,500, Rudy told reporters outside the courthouse after Tuesday's verdict, "I'll be able to get more Pokémon cards."