Offer to Comprimise

Offer to Compromise
The McKinney family brought action for damages against the defendants on the last day of 1996. About a year later in January of 1998 they served an offer to compromise under section 998 of the California Code of Civil Procedure. They were willing to settle for a total of $140,000, $60,000 from the California Portland Cement Co. (CPC) and $80,000 from Amcord. The offer to compromise was rejected by these two defendants although all other defendants in the case accepted the offer. The two companies rejected the offer on the ground that it was too early in the discovery process.
Section 998 of the Civil Code has been in existence for over 150 years. The code was written to encourage out of court settlement to prevent the courts from being over burdened with huge backlogs of cases. The intent of the code was to foster communication between parties in dispute to bring them to fast settlements that would benefit both parties and avoid costly and time consuming cour...