Hersey

*794 Under Code of Civil Procedure section 998, 1 a litigant who refuses an offer to compromise and then obtains a judgment lower than *795 the offer is tasked with paying *264 the offeror's costs incurred from the date of the rejected offer. Here respondent landlord made two different offers to compromise his tenant's civil complaint under section 998. Both were rejected. This appeal primarily presents a question of costs, that is, how to determine the correct "net" judgment in favor of appellant tenant and, thereafter, whether the judgment is more favorable than the two section 998 offers.

A landlord-tenant dispute over the habitability of a tenant's apartment generated two offers by landlord Stephen Vopava (respondent), the first for $10,000 and the second for $20,001. Tenant Alice Hersey (appellant) rejected both. After a bench trial, the court awarded Hersey $7,438 in damages. The court subsequently found the section 998 offers were reasonable and made in good faith; declared respondent to be the prevailing party under section 998 ; and awarded respondent attorney fees pursuant to the rental agreement and costs. Appellant appeals from this post-judgment order awarding costs…