Koehn v. Tobias

Dist. Ct. did not err in ordering defendants to pay plaintiff $3,744 in attorney fees associated with his counsel’s preparation for unsuccessful court-ordered settlement conference that occurred prior to trial on plaintiff’s section 1983 action that resulted in jury finding in favor of defendants. Dist. Ct. could properly find under Rule 16(f)(1)(B) that defendants did not participate in scheduled settlement conference in good faith, where counsel for defendant told plaintiff and Dist. Ct. at hearing prior to settlement conference that defendants had made prior $150,000 settlement offer and then came to settlement conference and offered less than $75,000, which was in range that plaintiff had previously rejected in prior settlement negotiations. Moreover, while defendants could properly change their settlement position prior to participating in settlement conference, their failure to notify Dist. Ct. and plaintiff of that change made settlement conference futile exercise. Also, defendants allowed plaintiff to prepare for settlement conference under assumption that starting point for negotiations would be significantly higher than what was offered and rejected during prior settlement negotiations.