Taing v. Johnson Scaffolding Co

In Taing v. Johnson Scaffolding Co. (1992) 9 Cal.App.4th 579, the court reversed an award of costs, declaring "if a plaintiff elects to submit a section 998 offer in cases involving multiple defendants, the offer to any defendant against whom the plaintiff seeks to extract penalties for nonacceptance must be sufficiently specific to permit that individual defendant to determine the exact amount plaintiff is seeking from him or her." ( Taing v. Johnson Scaffolding Co., supra, 9 Cal.App.4th at p. 586.) Taing explained its rule as follows: "An unapportioned offer by a single plaintiff to multiple defendants . . . requires any defendant who wants to accept to obtain the concurrence of his or her codefendants. This places a reasonable defendant at the mercy of codefendants whose refusal to settle may be unreasonable." ( Id. at p. 585.)