Prevailing as One Is Not Prevailing as Many

Kahn v. The Dewey Grp., No. B259679 (D2d3 Sept. 8, 2015)

Plaintiff, a mobile home tenant, alleges that twenty different defendants caused him to be exposed to harmful industrial chemicals that were disposed of on land that would later become the trailer park. All twenty defendants jointly made a Code of Civil Procedure § 998 offer of judgment for $75,000. Fourteen defendants got out on nonsuit. The other six went to a trail, where the jury deadlocked and a mistrial was declared. Although the retrial was pending, the fourteen nonsuited defendants moved to recover their proportionate share of expert costs, which the trial court granted. Plaintiff appealed.

A Successful Evasion of the Usury Laws ...

Bisno v. Kahn, No. A133537 (D1d3 Apr, 25, 2014)

The court holds that it doesn’t violate California's usury laws for a creditor to enter into a contract with a debtor to forebear on collecting on a judgment, even if the forbearance contract includes interest well over and above the statutory 10 percent that applies to unpaid judgments. That said, the court holds that the forbearance contract is not part of the judgment. So the debtor can satisfy the judgment without paying off the contract, which would have to be enforced in a separate action where the debtor would get a chance to raise defenses like unconscionability and economic duress.

Affirmed.