Fiege

Plaintiff alleged that the trial court erred in enforcing a settlement. He says the settlement was unenforceable as to three parties because they did not participate. We reject his claim and affirm the judgment.

BACKGROUND

Plaintiff Robert Fiege sued several defendants, including individuals Norman Cooke and Robert Ellis, over a traffic accident. Michael Wooldridge, the driver of the car in which Fiege was a passenger, also sued Cooke and Ellis. After a complaint in intervention by one of the insurance companies, a consolidation, and a cross-complaint by Cooke and Ellis, the matter went to a mandatory settlement conference. By this time, Fiege was on one side; Cooke, Ellis and Wooldridge (referred to as “the defendants” for sake of convenience) were on the other, in that Fiege was seeking compensation from all three.

The defendants were all insured under policies that gave the insurers the right to settle without the defendants’ consent and to bind the defendants to the settlement. One insurer agreed to settle for $135,000 (including payment on two liens) on behalf of Cooke and Ellis. The other agreed to pay $25,000 on behalf of Wooldridge. The trial court secured…