Court Opinion

ID: 9795963
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:43:36.853852+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:43:18.840575
License: Public Domain

Judge DAILEY,
specially concurring.
I join in the majority’s opinion. I write separately, however, because I believe that, while not currently required by § 13-17-202, C.R.S.2003, the use of formalized offers of settlement are (1) more fair to the parties, in giving notice of the statute’s cost-shifting provisions; and (2) more beneficial, in the long run, to the settlement process the statute was designed to encourage.
In this regard, I find highly persuasive the reasoning of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals in Sachsenmaier v. Mittlestadt, 145 Wis.2d 781, 791-92, 429 N.W.2d 532, 536-37 (Wis.Ct.App.1988):
A rule requiring a [statutory] offer of settlement to be clearly and unequivocally designated is necessary to accomplish the purpose of the statute. Settlement is not encouraged if one side might reasonably be unaware that an offer of settlement is being made. Furthermore, if the side ‘rejecting’ a settlement offer is penalized by having to pay the other party ... costs and interest, as a matter of fairness the recovering party should at least be required to expressly state that it is extending an offer of settlement under the statute.
*303... [W]e should encourage, not discourage, the parties to negotiate for settlement. Often overtures are made and offers and counteroffers exchanged before a settlement is reached. We would be inhibiting the settlement process were we to construe [the statute] so liberally as to allow anything resembling an offer to qualify as a [statutory] offer of settlement. Counsel should be free to continue informal settlement negotiations by exchanging evaluations without having to worry that at some time in the future, a document neither intended nor understood to be a formal offer of settlement might form the basis for an assessment of ... costs.
Thus, I believe that a party’s offer of settlement under § 13-17-102 should use or include either (1) a formal case caption; (2) an explicit reference to § 13-17-202; (3) a reference to the statute’s cost-shifting consequences; or (4) all of the above, so that the other party is properly alerted to the consequences of rejecting the offer.
Here, defendant’s first offer of settlement was in the form of. a court document: it had a formal case caption, was titled “Defendant HealthOne’s Offer of Settlement,” explicitly referenced § 13-17-202, and indicated, consistent with the statute, that it would be deemed withdrawn if it were not accepted in writing by plaintiffs within ten days. In contrast, defendant’s second offer of settlement, the operative one here, was made in the third paragraph of a letter that was faxed to plaintiffs. The letter contained neither a caption nor a reference to the statute; it did not indicate that the offer would be open only for a specified time; and, it made no allusion to the potential consequences attending plaintiffs rejection of the offer. Under the circumstances, there was a real danger that plaintiffs may not have understood the legal effect of the second, and operative, offer of settlement.
All we can do is urge a preferred practice under the statute; it lies within the General Assembly’s legislative prerogative or the supreme court’s rule-making power, however, to elevate it from a preferred to a required practice. In my view, serious consideration should be given to requiring a formalized offer of settlement under § 13-17-202.