Settlement

A 998 offer made jointly to a defendant surgeon and his putative employer was invalid because it required both to agree to the offer.  Consent of a single defendant would be insufficient to accept the offer as presented.  The case illustrates why 998 offers are invalid when made to multiple defendants requiring all to consent.  The putative employer had defenses… Read More

Two employees filed separate PAGA suits against employer.  Employer settled with the first employee who sued it, and the Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA) accepted its share of the settlement proceeds.  The second employee then moved to intervene and object to the settlement.  Held:  The trial court did not err in denying the motion to invtervene.  The motion was… Read More

Under CCP 664.6, the court may, if the section's conditions are met, enter judgment enforcing the parties' settlement.  However, that judgment must state all terms of the settlement agreement that have not yet been fully performed.  The judgment can do nothing else.  If the settlement reserves jurisdiction in the court to enforce the settlement, the court may, after entering judgment… Read More

Fees charged by a mediator for a mediation not ordered by the court may be recoverable as ordinary costs in the discretion of the trial court. Read More

Plaintiff’s 998 offer made 19 days after service of the complaint was ineffective because the defendant then lacked sufficient information about the plaintiff’s injuries to reasonably evaluate the offer. Read More

The trial court abused its discretion in denying a prevailing plaintiff attorney fees since the defendant’s initial settlement offer (which the plaintiff rejected) did not comply with section 998. Read More

Putative class representatives were not entitled to intervene in a parallel class action to object to settlement as they could preserve their rights by opting out or by objecting to the settlement and moving to vacate judgment approving the settlement. Read More

Civil Code 1668 bars enforcement of a release as to fraud and statute-based claims if any element of the complete tort (such as reliance or damages) still remains unsatisfied at the time the release is signed. Read More

The extra costs allowed when a 998 offer is rejected may not be collected by a defendant in an action under California’s Fair Employment & Housing Act unless the defendant shows that the action was frivolous, unreasonable, or groundless when brought, or the plaintiff continued to litigate after it clearly became so. Read More

Attorney fee award in connection with damages for breach of a settlement agreement is reversed for lack of admissible evidence of the attorney fees reasonably incurred since the only witness at trial lacked meaningful knowledge of these matters. Read More

Unless a personal injury plaintiff’s (future) heirs join in the settlement agreement individually, they are not bound by it or by its releases, so money paid to the plaintiff to settle future wrongful death suits is worth only as much as the hold harmless agreement by the now-deceased plaintiff is; moreover, non-settling defendants cannot take advantage of any setoff as… Read More

For purposes of comparison with the amount of the judgment, pre-offer fees and costs are added to the amount of a rejected 998 settlement offer that is silent as to fees and costs since upon acceptance the offeree would have been entitled to an award of pre-offer fees and costs in addition to the amount of the settlement. Read More

For purposes of comparison with the amount of the judgment, pre-offer fees and costs are added to the amount of a rejected 998 settlement offer that is silent as to fees and costs since upon acceptance the offeree would have been entitled to an award of pre-offer fees and costs in addition to the amount of the settlement. Read More

Andrew Noble offers further thoughts on this important case. Read More

A cautionary tale for all those who draft and review settlement agreements: plaintiff’s attorney who breached confidentiality clause in settlement agreement could not be liable for breach of contract, since he signed off on the agreement only by indicating his “approval as to form and content” and therefore could not be considered a signatory or party to the contract. Read More

An agreement settling a fee dispute between a client and a law firm is enforced despite the client’s argument that the agreement lacked consideration. Read More

A settlement agreement between the parties to this case was unenforceable because it imposed a substantial restriction on Golden's practice of his profession as a doctor by trying to prevent him from working with any hospital with which CEPMG had a contract, which amounted to 30% of the market. Read More

A settlement agreement and judgment dismissing a prior class action wage & hour suit bars plaintiff's follow-on complaint for nonpayment of reporting time pay during the period covered by the prior litigation, since the agreement’s release was broad enough to cover this component of wages even though it didn’t actually come up in the previous suit. Read More

An email exchange between opposing counsel clarified the ambiguity in plaintiff’s 998 offer, making it enforceable when the defendant did not accept the offer and fared worse at trial. Read More

Judgment in earlier wage & hour class action that employees filed against their staffing company employer barred later suit on the same claims by same employees against the firm where they worked since that firm was the staffing company’s agent with respect to payroll matters. Read More