South Florida Injury Lawyers Blog
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has a warning for defendants who are the subject of multi-defendant litigation: “Beware: When a fellow litigant settles on the eve of trial, you can’t bank on the right to claim surprise and rewrite your case from top to bottom.”
That is, in an age when virtually all cases settle in part or in whole – many just days or weeks before trial – no one can claim they are caught off-guard when that happens, even if it leaves one or two defendants to contend with greater liability while others have settled with plaintiff for a lesser amount in exchange for being excused as a defendant.
That’s what happened in the case of Monfore v. Phillips, which originated in Oklahoma.