Parents of Slain Woman Sue Her Lover : Courts: Businessman should have anticipated his wife’s potential for violence against his mistress and the baby, they assert.

LAGUNA NIGUEL —  The parents of a 25-year-old Chinese woman who was slain along with her baby son in Mission Viejo last summer have filed suit against her married lover, claiming he should have known their relationship would lead to violence.

Zhuo Chuan Ji and Xiang Lan Liu of Qindao, China, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court Feb. 16 seeking $2 million in punitive damages from Tseng Jyi (Jim) Peng, 51, a wealthy Taiwanese businessman who was having an extramarital affair with their daughter when she was killed.

Peng’s wife, Li Yuan (Lisa) Peng, who was also named in the lawsuit, has been charged with the grisly Aug. 17 slayings of Ranbing (Jennifer) Ji and 5-month-old Kevin Ji at their apartment near Lake Mission Viejo.

Lisa Peng pleaded innocent to the slayings and is being held without bail in County Jail. On Friday, a preliminary hearing was set for April 15 in Municipal Court in Laguna Niguel.

The slayings ended an affair that lasted more than two years between Jim Peng and Jennifer Ji, his former executive secretary. It began in China, and continued when she moved to Mission Viejo in August, 1992. Kevin Ji was born last March at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills.

The lawsuit, filed in U. S. District Court in Los Angeles, alleges that Jim Peng should have known of the potential for violence “created by his infidelity to his spouse and family.” Jim and Lisa Peng have been married for 21 years and have two sons, aged 16 and 20.

The lawsuit also alleges that Peng knew his wife had learned of the affair and that she had threatened Ji. Peng was negligent in financing Ji’s lifestyle, putting her up in an apartment close to his Rancho Santa Margarita home and not providing her with adequate security, said Shin P. Yang, a San Gabriel-based attorney for the Ji family.

“There were a number of encounters” between Ji and Lisa Peng, Yang said. “It’s not confirmed how many. We know they met at least once.”

In court for a hearing on his wife’s criminal case Friday, Peng declined to comment other than to say he considered the lawsuit without merit and a publicity stunt.

Jim Peng is chief executive officer of Ranger Communications, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of citizens-band radios. He discovered the bodies of Jennifer and Kevin Ji Aug. 18, when he returned from a business trip to Taiwan.

Jennifer Ji was slumped over a living room couch and had been stabbed at least 18 times. The baby had been suffocated in his crib in a bedroom.

Although no weapon has been found, Sheriff’s Department investigators arrested Lisa Peng five months later based on what they consider a crucial piece of evidence--a DNA sample from a bite mark on Jennifer Ji’s left arm--that directly links her to the slayings.

Prosecutors also said two buttons apparently belonging to Lisa Peng were found in the apartment.