Air MacHine Com SRL v. Superior Court

Air Machine Com SRL, an Italian limited company (COM), and Panatta Sport SRL, an Italian limited company (Panatta) (together, petitioners), seek to overturn in this writ of mandate proceeding the trial court’s ruling that they generally appeared (and thus forfeited their objection to personal jurisdiction) when they jointly served a statutory offer of settlement under Code of Civil Procedure section 998 (998 offer) on real parties in interest Ponani Sukumar and Southern California Stroke Rehabilitation Associates (together, Sukumar) while their motions to quash service of summons for lack of jurisdiction were pending.

Petitioners contend the trial court erred in treating thqir 998 offer as a general appearance because their “act” of serving the 998 offer fell within the purview of section 418.10, subdivision (e)(1), which they contend “clear[ly]” applies to prevent a defendant’s involuntarily submission to jurisdiction when a defendant moves to quash service of summons and engages in “any other action” during the pendency of the motion to quash.

As we explain, we conclude section 418.10, subdivision (e)(1), applies to petitioners’ service of the 998 offer on Sukumar.…