Following a defense verdict, the trial court denied a defendant’s motion for more than $69,000 in attorney fees under Georgia’s “offer of settlement” statute, OCGA § 9-11-68, in this wrongful death action against two tractor-trailer truck drivers, their employers, and their insurers. The trial court found that the defendant was not entitled to attorney fees because its initial offer to settle for $25,000 was not made in good faith. The defendant appeals, arguing that the trial court erred in denying its motion made after the jury returned a verdict against only the other truck driver. Because the trial court did not abuse its discretion in finding that the settlement offer was not made in good faith and declining to award attorney fees to the defendant, we affirm. This is the second appearance of this case before this Court. As recited in Great West Cas. Co. v. Bloomfield , 303 Ga. App. 26 693 SE2d 99 2010, the underlying procedural posture of the case on the first appeal was as follows: On June 23, 2006, Nola Rowe Bloomfield was fatally injured in a vehicular accident. Her husband, Gerald Bloomfield, and her estate, through its administrator Roger Kirschenbaum collectively, “Bloomfield”, brought an action alleging that the accident was caused by the actions of two separate truck drivers and naming as defendants the drivers, the companies that owned the drivers’ trucks, and those companies’ liability insurers. On June 12, 2007, one of the drivers, his trucking company, and that company’s insurer, Great West Casualty Company collectively, “Great West”, made an offer of settlement pursuant to OCGA § 9-11-68. Bloomfield rejected the offer in writing on July 16, 2007. A jury subsequently returned a verdict of no liability as to Great West, and the court entered a judgment on that verdict. Great West then requested attorney fees and expenses of litigation pursuant to OCGA § 9-11-68. The trial court initially denied the attorney fee request without explanation, but this Court vacated the order and remanded the case for the trial court to set forth the basis for its ruling, as required by OCGA § 9-11-68 d 2. Great West Cas. Co. , 303 Ga. App. at 30 3.
On remand, the trial court made specific findings of fact to support its determination that Great West’s initial $25,000 settlement offer was not made in good faith, and thus that Great West was not entitled to attorney fees under OCGA § 9-11-68. The trial court found that the initial settlement offer of $25,000 “was not a reasonable offer or a realistic assessment of liability in a wrongful death case,” that Great West’s driver paid the traffic ticket fine, and that Great West never deposed or even interviewed the first police officer on the scene who testified at trial for the plaintiff. It also found that, absent evidence that Great West obtained “new discovery or factual evidence,” its offer during trial to settle for the policy limits of $1 million “showed the bad faith intent of the defendant’s initial offer.”
