Fresk v. KraemerFresk v. Kraemer
In this negligence action, the sole issue before us is plaintiffs entitlement to attorney fees under
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
We take the following undisputed facts from the opinion of the Court of Appeals and from the record. The dispute between plaintiff and defendant arose from a vehicle collision that occurred on December 14, 1998. On December 6,1999, plaintiff made a written demand upon defendant for $5,500 for damages resulting from that collision and notified defendant that she planned to seek attorney fees under
Plaintiff did not accept defendant’s offer. Instead, on January 20, 2000, plaintiff filed a complaint against defendant in the Multnomah County Circuit Court, alleging negligence and damages in the amount of $5,500, along with costs and attorney fees under
Because of the amount in controversy, the trial court transferred the case to arbitration.
See
Plaintiff filed a timely notice of appeal of the arbitrator’s award and requested a trial
de novo. See
Following the jury’s verdict, defendant and plaintiff filed competing petitions for attorney fees and costs. In his petition, among other things, defendant argued that
After briefing and argument, the trial court, for the most part, agreed with plaintiffs position. Based upon its reading of this court’s decision in
Butler v. United Pacific Ins. Co.,
Defendant appealed the trial court’s supplemental judgments awarding attorney fees and costs to plaintiff and its order denying defendant’s petition for attorney fees.
4
The Court of Appeals reversed, holding that the trial court had erred in granting plaintiff attorney fees. After construing the word “tender” under
We allowed plaintiffs petition for review. Because we agree that defendant’s condition that plaintiff release him from further liability for her negligence claim did not prevent his prelitigation payment offer from acting as an effective “tender” for purposes of
DISCUSSION
The legislature enacted
“In any action for damages for an injury or wrong to the person or property, or both, of another where the amount pleaded is $5,500 or less, and the plaintiff prevails in the action, there shall be taxed and allowed to the plaintiff, at trial and on appeal, a reasonable amount to be fixed by the court as attorney fees for the prosecution of the action, if the court finds that written demand for the payment of such claim was made on the defendant not less than 10 days before the commencement of the action or the filing of a formal complaint underORS 46.465 , or not more than 10 days after the transfer of the action underORS 46.461. However, no attorney fees shall be allowed to the plaintiff if the court finds that the defendant tendered to the plaintiff, prior to the commencement of the action or the filing of a formal complaint underORS 46.465 , or not more than 10 days after the transfer of the action underORS 46.461 , an amount not less than the damages awarded to the plaintiff
Or Laws 1999, ch 947, § 1 (emphasis added).
This court repeatedly has recognized that the legislative purpose underlying
As discussed above, the parties’ dispute in this case concerns the meaning of the word “tendered” under
Neither
As the Court of Appeals did in this case, this court previously has construed the word “tender” in other attorney fees statutes providing similar tender defenses consistently with the meaning of that term under this court’s common law.
See, e.g., Butler,
Defendant disputes that the definition of an effective “tender” at common law informs the proper construction of that term under
We, however, disagree with defendant’s assertion and decline to read the term “tender” under
Anticipating our application of the meaning of “tender” under this court’s common law — that is, an offer that is coupled with no conditions or only conditions for which the tendering party has a right to insist — to
Although this court has construed the term “tender” in other statutes providing a tender defense to attorney fees awards consistently with the meaning of that term under this court’s common law, this court also has explained that, in deciding what constitutes an effective tender in such circumstances, this cotut considers the relevant statutory context.
See Efem,
In this case, we are similarly persuaded that defendant was entitled to insist upon a release from farther liability for plaintiffs negligence claim as a condition to payment under
This court’s decision in
Butler,
On review, this court concluded that the plaintiff was entitled to recover only the compensatory damages award from the defendant surety.
Id.
at 478. The court, however, also concluded that the defendant surety’s prelitigation offer to pay the amount of the plaintiffs compensatory damages award did not defeat the plaintiffs claim to attorney fees under
former
We acknowledge that, in view of the similarities between the statute at issue in
Butler
and
In the context of
CONCLUSION
We conclude that defendant’s condition of release from further liability for plaintiffs negligence claim, without more, did not prevent his prelitigation payment offer from qualifying as an effective “tender” within the meaning of
The decision of the Court of Appeals is affirmed. The judgment of the circuit court is reversed, and the case is remanded to the circuit court for further proceedings.
Notes
Because defendant’s offer of payment was conditioned upon plaintiff releasing him from further liability for the negligence claim that was the subj ect of plaintiffs complaint, we observe, as did the Court of Appeals, that our analysis that follows applies to only those circumstances in which a defendant has limited the
condition of release to claims that are the subject of the underlying litigation between the parties.
See Fresk,
“(4) Notwithstanding any other provision of law or the Oregon Rules of Civil Procedure:
*
“(b) If a party requests a trial de novo under the provisions of this section, the action is subject to arbitration underORS 36.405(l)(a) , the party is not entitled to attorney fees by law or contract, and the position of the party is not improved after judgment on the trial de novo, pursuant to subsection (5) of this section the party shall be taxed the reasonable attorney fees and costs and disbursements of the other parties to the action on the trial de novo incurred by the other parties after the filing of the decision and award of the arbitrator.
«}■?
“(g) * * * if a party is entitled to an award of attorney fees solely by reason of subsection (4) of this section, the court shall award reasonable attorney fees not to exceed the following amounts:
«* * % * *
“(b) Ten percent of the amount claimed in the complaint, if the plaintiff requests the trial de novo but the position of the plaintiff is not improved after the trial de novo.”
In her petition aná supplemental petition for attorney fees, plaintiff claimed a total of $42,072 for attorney fees. In considering the reasonableness of plaintiff’s attorney fees, the trial court concluded that plaintiff was not entitled to the full amount that she had claimed because her fees “must reflect a substantial discount for the results obtained [from the jury trial] and the failure to address the attorney fee issue without requiring a trial de novo on the merits [of plaintiffs underlying claim].”
As discussed above,
Before the Court of Appeals and this court, defendant also alternatively argued that, under
In 1955, the legislature amended
Former
“The costs and disbursements of the defendants, including a reasonable attorney’s fee to be fixed by the court, shall be taxed by the clerk and recovered from the state; but if it appears that the commission tendered the defendants before commencing the action an amount equal to or greater than that assessed by the jury, the state shall recover its necessary disbursements from the defendants.”
(Emphasis added.)
Former