Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

RE: Motion To Quash Service of Summons & Complaint (Jurisdiction).... In a recent Tentative Ruling

(here's the link: http://www.occourts.org/tentativerulings/dchaffeerulings.htm) , the Judge said (in 2nd case named Crepy VS Reckitt Benckiser, LLC, in the paragraph that starts with: "BY WAY OF EXAMPLE, A PARTY DOES NOT .... ) that if defendant made a prior attempt to settle with Plaintiff, before Plaintiff filed suit, then Defendant might have waived objection to jurisdiction (if they later file a Motion To Quash Summons & Complaint). ...,,, My Question is, if a defendant, signed a Tolling Agreement & made a few attempts to settle with Plaintiff, before Plaintiff filed suit, wouldn't that be considered Defendant's waiver to objecting on jurisdiction, since the Judge states in could be, in the Tentative ruling above?


Asked on 1/21/15, 4:55 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

You are completely misreading that paragraph of the decision. A section 998 offer can only be made AFTER the lawsuit is filed. It is a technical and very specific type of settlement offer that involves an offer to have a judgment entered against the defendant on specific terms, and it is made after the lawsuit is filed. If the defendant submits a 998 offer after they have been sued and before objecting to jurisdiction, that may well constitute a general appearance in the case because it invokes the court's power to enter a judgment and the court's power to penalize the plaintiff if the settlement is rejected an the plaintiff does not do better than the offer at trial. That is an extremely different thing from non-judicial pre-litigation settlement efforts. Likewise, a tolling agreement is merely a contract. Again it is not participating in the litigation. It is the participation in the litigation before asserting objection to jurisdiction that can waive the objection. Nothing done prior to the action being filed other than an enforceable agreement to jurisdiction, can cause a waiver of the right to object to jurisdiction.

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Answered on 1/21/15, 5:14 pm


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