Kahn

Plaintiff Brian Kahn sued 20 defendants he alleged were jointly and severally liable for causing him to suffer personal injury. Prior to trial, all 20 defendants jointly made a Code of Civil Procedure section 998 offer to settle Kahn’s action for $75,000. Kahn did not accept the offer. Subsequently, the trial court granted a nonsuit as to 14 of the 20 defendants (hereafter, the dismissed defendants), and judgment was entered as to them. The case against the remaining six defendants went to a jury, but the jury was unable to reach a verdict and the trial court granted a mistrial. A retrial currently is pending.

Section 998 provides, among other things, that if a plaintiff fails to accept a defendant’s settlement offer and fails to obtain a more favorable judgment, the court may require the plaintiff to pay the defendant’s reasonable expert witness fees. (§ 998, subd. (c)(1).) Pursuant to this provision, the 14 dismissed defendants filed a memorandum of costs seeking, among other things, expert witness fees of $206,090 pursuant to section 998. The dismissed defendants asserted that defendants collectively had incurred nearly $300,000 in expert witness fees, and urged that…