Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

My big question to you is when was notice of entry of the judgment served? There are time limits for a party to submit a memorandum of costs.

A prevailing party who claims costs must serve and file a memorandum of costs within 15 days after the date of mailing of the notice of entry of judgment or dismissal by the clerk under Code of Civil Procedure section 664.5 or the date of service of written notice of entry of judgment or dismissal, or within 180 days after entry of judgment, whichever is first. The memorandum of costs must be verified by a statement of the party, attorney, or agent that to the best of his or her knowledge the items of cost are correct and were necessarily incurred in the case. (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 3.1700 subd. (a)(1).)

The time limit for a party to present a costs bill is mandatory. �[I]f the claimant fails to present a costs bill, a waiver of the right to costs results. The time provisions relating to the filing of a memorandum of costs, while not jurisdictional, are mandatory.� (Hydratec, Inc. v. Sun Valley 260 Orchard & Vineyard Co. (5th Dist. 1990) 223 Cal.App.3d 924, 929.)

The only memorandum of costs that would be timely after two (2) years would be a memorandum of costs to enforce or collect the judgment, which is a different matter altogether.

Have you spoken in person, or on the phone, with an attorney about this?

I do not understand what you mean when you say they are avoiding your attempts to pay the debt.

If they are refusing your payments on the judgment, that might be one thing. If they are refusing to accept the payment structure that you propose, that's quite another -- they have every right to refuse that proposed structure.

In any event, the correct procedure for responding to a memorandum of costs is a motion to tax. The judge will only be interested in the question of what costs are appropriate, and may well not be interested in settlement efforts or your efforts to pay. You can try -- but it may be that the judge will say that those issues are not before the court that day and move on to something else.

I agree with Mr. Roach and Mr. Perry. The costs memorandum is almost certainly for costs of enforcement. Such a memo can be filed any time until the judgment is paid or otherwise resolved. Please note that the time limit for a motion to tax costs of enforcement is shorter than the limit for a regular motion to tax.

It's not clear what you mean when you say the plaintiffs "are avoiding [your] attempts to pay the debt". You said earlier that the plaintiffs are refusing to settle with you. That is their right. They are not required to accept less than the amount of the judgment. The court cannot force them to settle. But if you are trying to pay the full amount and the other side is putting procedural hurdles in the way (perhaps so the judgment will keep accruing interest), then the court can intervene.

I would need to know more about your situation before I could offer more concrete guidance.

I want to clarify part of my prior answer. I wrote that a memorandum for costs of enforcement "can be filed any time until the judgment is paid or otherwise resolved." That is true. But the court may only award costs that were incurred within two years before the memo was filed. If the claimant is trying to recover any costs that were more than two years old, those portions of the claim are time-barred.

Costs memoranda often do not give much detail about the claims. If you bring a motion to tax, the judgment creditor will have to provide those details in the opposition. You may then attack their claims in your reply.