Joint Offer Could Be Assessed, Plus 998 Offer Condition Of Verifying Existence of Insurance Limits Did Not Void The Offer.
In Markow v. Rosner, Case Nos. B260715/B262530 (2d Dist., Div. 1 Oct. 4, 2016) (published), husband and wife won an eventual medical malpractice/loss of consortium action against doctor and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to the tune of $5.2 million, with the award against Cedars reversed on appeal (in a 2-1 vote) but affirmed against the doctor (in a 3-0 vote). Earlier, however, husband and wife jointly served doctor with a 998 offer to compromise their claims for $999,999.99, although the offer did not make any allocation and was conditioned on the accuracy of doctor’s representation that he had only $1 million in insurance coverage for plaintiffs’ claims. Doctor rejected the offer. The lower court determined that the 998 offer was valid and awarded 998 costs to plaintiffs.
Doctor’s challenges to the 998 offer were rejected on appeal. The appellate court, which voted 3-0 on this issue, determined that not all joint offers are invalid, especially here given that wife’s consortium loss claims were capped at $250,000 such that the bulk of the offer related to the husband’s claims—the doctor had sufficient risk assessment information to respond to the offer, especially given the ultimate result was $5.2 million. There was no problem in requiring verification of insurance limits because this condition was very straightforward and certain in nature, as recognized earlier in Deocampo v. Ahn, 101 Cal.App.4th 758, 778 (2002).