Sea Coast Foods, Inc. v. Lu-Mar Lobster & Shrimp, Inc.

Lu-Mar Lobster and Shrimp, Inc., Jeffrey Sedacca and Todd Rincon 1 appeal the *1057 district court’s refusal to award attorneys’ fees and more than minimal costs after Lu-Mar accepted an offer of judgment from Sea Coast Foods, Inc., and others. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 68. We affirm in part and vacate and remand in part.

BACKGROUND

Sea Coast and Lu-Mar had a joint venture for the sale of shrimp on the wholesale market. Lu-Mar was to sell shrimp, at cost, to Sea Coast which would then market and re-sell the shrimp. The parties agreed to split the profits from the resales equally. Pursuant to the terms of the venture, from June, 1995 through December, 1997, approximately $28,000,000 worth of shrimp was sold to Sea Coast by Lu-Mar. However, in November 1997, Sea Coast claimed that it had discovered that Lu-Mar had been invoicing the shrimp at a price above Lu-Mar’s actual costs. Sea Coast estimated that it had overpaid Lu-Mar by approximately $600,000 over the course of the joint venture. At that point, Sea Coast demanded an accounting from Lu-Mar. When Lu-Mar did not respond, Sea Coast filed a complaint in the underlying action in the United States District Court for the Western District…