Costs Award To One Defendant Included $209,886.89 In Expert Witness Fees Because Plaintiff Had Rejected And Failed To Beat That Defendant’s Section 998 Offer Of $50,000 Plus Waiver Of Fees And Costs.
This next case provides a cautionary tale about the importance of giving careful consideration to reasonable section 998 offers – especially when they include a waiver of fees and costs. In SwiftAir v. Row, Case No. B306166 (2d Dist., Div. 7 May 12, 2022) (unpublished), Southwest Airlines and Row 44, the company that operated Southwest’s inflight WiFi service, defeated plaintiff’s lawsuit against them over Southwest’s decision not to license plaintiff’s software platform. Afterward, defendants each sought prevailing party attorneys’ fees and costs pursuant to the fees provisions in their contracts with plaintiff. Southwest also claimed entitlement to fees and costs under Code Civ. Proc., § 998 because plaintiff had rejected and failed to beat Southwest’s section 998 offer of $50,000 and a waiver of fees and costs. The trial court concluded defendants were the prevailing parties and granted their motions – awarding Southwest $1,501,988.80 in attorneys’ fees and $309,362.40 in costs, which included $209,886.89 in expert fees that plaintiff unsuccessfully moved to strike, and awarded Row $2,216,117.50 in attorneys’ fees and $57,830.44 in costs.
Plaintiff appealed – arguing that the trial court erred in its prevailing party determination because the trial court’s orders on defendants’ motion for summary adjudication and on plaintiff’s motions for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and for new trial were made in error. This argument went nowhere because the 2/7 DCA concluded that the trial court did not err in its MSA, JNOV and new trial orders – leaving only plaintiff’s argument that the trial court erred by awarding Southwest $209,886.89 in expert witness fees because Southwest’s section 998 offer was unreasonable, and the experts were not ordered by the trial court. The 2/7 DCA found no merit to this argument. First, section 998 (c)(1) provides an exception to the general rule that fees for experts not ordered by the trial court are not recoverable as costs. Second, although only settlement offers made in good faith – those that are reasonable under the circumstances of the case and sufficiently specific – are effective under section 998, the judgment of no liability against Southwest and its entitlement to prevailing party fees and costs was prima facie evidence that the offer, which was not a token or nominal offer, was reasonable. (See Covert v. FCA USA, LLC, 73 Cal.App.5th 821, 832-833 (2022).)
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