Plaintiff Did Not Have to Pay $21,000 in Expert Witness Fees.
Plaintiff in Sanchez v. Molina, Case No. F059653 (5th Dist. Nov. 21, 2011) (unpublished), who sought $700,000 in damages and lost a jury trial based on lack of causation (although negligence was found), had rejected a defense $10,000 offer under CCP § 998 and the defense rejected plaintiff’s $124,999.99 998 offer. The defense sought to recovery $21,000 in expert witness fees because plaintiff did not beat the 998 offer.
Didn’t happen. The Fifth District affirmed the lower court’s determination that the $10,000 offer was too nominal in nature. At the time of the defense offer, plaintiff had incurred over $80,000 in costs and had no money from other defendants (although another set of defendants later did settle for $250,000). Plaintiff’s injuries were not insignificant, and jury did find the nonsettling defendants were negligent even though not awarding damages on causation grounds. The 998 requirement of not enforcing token offers made in bad faith was fairly applied in this case, the appellate court found.
Mid-century NYC Transit Authority Token. Wikipedia.