Procedural, Bad Faith 998 Offer, And Late-Filed Motion To Tax Costs Arguments Rebuffed On Appeal.
In Dinh v. Lejano, Case No. H041828 (6th Dist. May 31, 2016) (unpublished), plaintiff won $12,000 in a personal injury case, obtaining a jury verdict for past medical expenses but not subsequent treatments/pain and suffering. The jury also found 50% negligence by plaintiff, further reducing the judgment to $6,000. The lower court awarded certain costs to the defense under a CCP § 998 offer, which took the judgment down to $2,225.04.
Plaintiff’s challenges to the result were not persuasive on appeal.
Because the 998 offer did have an acceptance line above counsel’s signature, this did satisfy the mandatory requirements requiring an acceptance component. The defense offer of $18,000 was in good faith, given the results in the case and given that it was a “narrow spread” between plaintiff’s own $23,000 pre-trial offer to settle. Finally, the lower court did not err in allowing the defense to file late papers to challenge plaintiff’s claim to costs, although indicating this is a discretionary call not designed to diminish the importance of procedural deadlines—with a strong signal that procedural deadlines should be enforced depending on the case circumstances.
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