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  • LAURANCE HAGEN VS. ASSOCIATED INSULATION OF CALIFORNIA ASBESTOS document preview
  • LAURANCE HAGEN VS. ASSOCIATED INSULATION OF CALIFORNIA ASBESTOS document preview
  • LAURANCE HAGEN VS. ASSOCIATED INSULATION OF CALIFORNIA ASBESTOS document preview
  • LAURANCE HAGEN VS. ASSOCIATED INSULATION OF CALIFORNIA ASBESTOS document preview
  • LAURANCE HAGEN VS. ASSOCIATED INSULATION OF CALIFORNIA ASBESTOS document preview
  • LAURANCE HAGEN VS. ASSOCIATED INSULATION OF CALIFORNIA ASBESTOS document preview
						
                                

Preview

ve oe WA Hh B BN BoM NR ON OR ON NR NR ROS Be Se Be eo So wz aA mh Ss BN Se SO BPA DAH BR WKH KF S Eric R. Haas, State Bar No, 073947 Ulla M. Pajala, State Bar No. 184130 BURNHAM BROWN ELECTRONICALLY A Professional Law Corporation P.O. Box 119 FILED Oakland, California 94604 Superior Court of California, “ is County of San Francisco 1901 Harrison Street, 11th Floor AUG 24 2010 Oakland, California 94612 Clerk of the Court Telephone: (510) 444-6800 BY: VANESSA WU Facsimile: (510) 835-6666 Deputy Clerk Attorneys for Defendant EAST BAY SHEET METAL WORKS, a dissolved corporation SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO UNLIMITED JURISDICTION LAURANCE HAGEN, No. CGC-10-275582 Plaintiff, OBJECTIONS OF DEFENDANT EAST BAY SHEET METAL WORKS, a vy, dissolved corporation, FO PLAINTIFFS’ CCP § 998 OFFER TO COMPROMISE ASSOCIATED INSULATION OF CALIFORNIA; Defendants as Reflected on _ Exhibit | attached to the Summary Complaint Complaint Filed: June 2, 2010 herein; and DOES 1-8500, Defendants. Defendant EAST BAY SHEET METAL WORKS, a dissolved corporation (“EBSMW”), hereby objects to Plaintiff LAURANCE HAGEN’s (“Plaintiff”) Code of Civil Procedure Section 998 Offer to Compromise on the grounds that the offer is premature and not made in good faith and compliance with the intent of Code of Civil Procedure section 998 to settle the action in good faith. Instead, Plaintiff's offer is device to shift costs to EBSMW without justification. Plaintiff knows that EBSMW does not have sufficient facts or information to determine if Plaintiff's offer is reasonable. Code of Civil Procedure section 998 was enacted to encourage settlement of lawsuits before trial, and to punish parties which fail to accept a reasonable offer. T._M. Cobb Company 1 DEFENDANT EAST BAY SHEET METAL WORKS, a dissolved corporation’s CGC-09-275582 OBJECTION TO PLAINTIFFS’ CCP § 998 OFFER TO COMPROMISEwe WA HW eB BH Ne RN RB RR MR ON NR Boe Be Be Re Be Be eB Se oe RBRRRPRRBE BEER BEEBE EE y. Superior Court, 36 Cal.3d 273, 280 (1984). However, parties are not expected to accept an unreasonable offer, or an offer which is not made in good faith. Elrod vy. Oregon. Cummins Diesel, 195 Cal.App.3d 692, 698-699 (1987). The reasonableness of an offer is determined by the information known, or the information that reasonably should have been known, to the offeree. Id, at 699. Ifa party makes a Code of Civil Procedure section 998 offer with the knowledge that the offeree lacks the information necessary to evaluate the offer, the offer is not made in good faith, Id, at 700. Accordingly, an offer that is unreasonable and made with a lack of good faith is invalid as a Code of Civil Procedure Section 998 Offer to Compromise. Id. at 698-699. In this case, insufficient discovery has been completed to enable EBSMW to accurately analyze the reasonableness of Plaintiff's offer to compromise, EBSMW was recently served with Plaintift’s Complaint, which was filed on June 2, 2010. Plaintiff has only provided unverified responses to Standard Asbestos Interrogatories, Set One. EBSMW cannot propound , its Special Interrogatories to Plaintiff until after Plaintiff's responses to Standard Asbestos Interrogatories, Set Two, are received. There is no date for Plaintiff's deposition. No discovery has been done of medical and other issues on the subject of expert testimony. No depositions of Plaintiff's co-workers have been taken by any defendant in this case. Finally, Plaintiff's expert witnesses remain unidentified and/or undisclosed. Plaintiff’s Code of Civil Procedure Section 998 Offer cannot have been intended as a good faith effort to settle the case, as Plaintiff has not provided EBSMW with any specific information in support of the broad general claims against it in the complaint. Therefore, Plaintiff's offer is invalid as a Code of Civil Procedure Section 998 Offer to Compromise, and fails to effectuate the policy of encouraging settlement of lawsuits in good faith prior to trial. DATED: August aa , 2010 BURNHAM BROWN : Rete Pane te ULLA M. PAJALA Attorneys for Defendant BAST BAY SHEET METAL WORKS, a dissolved corporation 1025844 2 DEFENDANT EAST BAY SHEET METAL WORKS, a dissolved corporation’s CGC-09-275582 OBJECTION TO PLAINTIFFS’ CCP § 998 OFFER TO COMPROMISERe: Laurance Hagen v. Associated Insulation of California, et al. Court: San Francisco Superior Action No: 275582 PROOF OF SERVICE BY ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION I declare that I am over the age of 18, not a party to the above-entitled action, and am an employee of Burnham Brown whose business address is 1901 Harrison Street, 11" Floor, Oakland, Alameda County, California 94612 (mailing address: Post Office Box 119, Oakland, California 94604). On the date executed below, I electronically served the following document(s) via LexisNexis File & Serve as described as: OBJECTIONS OF DEFENDANT EAST BAY SHEET METAL WORKS, a dissolved corporation, TO PLAINTIFFS’ CCP § 998 OFFER TO COMPROMISE on the recipients designated on the Transaction Receipt located on the LexisNexis File & Serve website. I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California that the foregoing is true and correct and was executed on August uv, 2010, at Oakland, California. Gig Gaulter PROOF OF SERVICE CASE NO. 275582