Lecuyer

Plaintiff Eileen E. Lecuyer was seriously injured at night near a parking lot at the Sunset Trails apartment complex when she stepped backward over the edge of an elevated and unrailed concrete walkway or sidewalk that was adjacent to the parking lot and fell down into an adjoining dirt or planter area between the sidewalk and one of the apartment buildings. Lecuyer brought an action for negligence and negligence per se against both the owner and manager of the property, Sunset Trails Apartments, LP (a California limited partnership) and M.G. Properties Company, respectively (together Sunset Trails).

Before a jury trial commenced in this matter, Sunset Trails mailed to Lecuyer’s counsel an offer to compromise under Code of Civil Procedure section 998 1 (the section 998 offer). Lecuyer received the offer but did not accept it.

The court refused to give a negligence per se instruction to the jury, but did permit an expert to state his expert opinion that the lack of a guardrail along the sidewalk created an unsafe condition.

*923 The jury found that Sunset Trails was negligent and that Lecuyer suffered damages in an amount in excess of $350,000 as a result of that…