Doi v. Halekulani Corp.
| Decision Date | 14 January 2002 |
| Docket Number | PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT,DEFENDANT-APPELLEE,No. 00-16447,00-16447 |
| Citation | 276 F.3d 1131 |
| Parties | (9th Cir. 2002) CLAIRE E. DOI,, v. HALEKULANI CORPORATION, DBA WAIKIKI PARC HOTEL, |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Counsel Earle A. Partington (argued), Honolulu, Hawaii, for plaintiff-appellant Doi.
Ronald Y.K. Leong, Randall Y. Yamamoto, Lani Narikiyo (argued), & Lester M.H. Goo, Watanabe, Ing & Kawashima, Honolulu, Hawaii, for defendant-appellee Halekulani Corporation.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii Susan Oki Mollway, District Judge, Presiding D.C. No. CV-98-00981-SOM
Before: David R. Thompson, Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain, and Marsha S. Berzon, Circuit Judges.
In this employment discrimination litigation, we must decide whether the district court correctly enforced a negotiated settlement without holding an evidentiary hearing where, after the terms were placed on the record and agreed to by all parties in open court, the plaintiff refused to execute a written agreement.
This appeal began as a discrimination lawsuit, which Claire Doi filed against her employer, the Halekulani Corporation, doing business as the Waikiki Parc Hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii on December 16, 1998. Doi's complaint alleged, inter alia, claims of sex and race discrimination in violation of Title VII, age discrimination in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), and various state law claims. After Halekulani filed an answer to the complaint, the parties entered into settlement negotiations.
It appears that the district court was involved in facilitating settlement discussions, which ultimately proved fruitful. On May 10, 2000, counsel for both Doi and Halekulani--as well as both Doi herself and a representative of Halekulani--came into open court to announce that the parties had agreed to settle the case and to place the terms of the settlement on the record. The relevant portions of the ensuing colloquy transpired as follows:
Finally, the payment of $15,000 will also be memorialized by a Form 1099 issued by Halekulani, and we will agree to work with counsel for plaintiff in terms of drafting language with regard to the consideration of $15,000 and its applicability.
The parties also stipulated that both the agreed payment and the stipulation to dismiss would be delivered to the Judge's chambers by Friday, May 12, at 4:00 p.m. Accordingly, Halekulani agreed to prepare settlement documents (including a stipulation to dismiss) memorializing the agreement entered into in open court. All seemed copacetic.
When Friday arrived, however, the agreement began to unravel. Four o'clock passed, and the district court did not receive the stipulation to dismiss. Concerned, the court convened a teleconference with the parties. At 4:25 p.m. lawyers for both Doi and Halekulani appeared before the district court via telephone. During that teleconference, plaintiff's counsel stated that he had received a facsimile from Doi Friday morning, asking him to fax her a copy of the paperwork when he received it from Halekulani. He did so. Doi then called him, just before noon, stating that she needed "more time to review documents; can't get it in by 4:00; please call. " Plaintiff's counsel attempted three times to return the call, and even sent plaintiff a facsimile asking her to contact him, but to no avail. Plaintiff's counsel did not know why Doi had not gotten back to him, but stated unambiguously that he believed that the settlement documents were satisfactory, and more importantly, that the documents correctly reflected the terms placed on the record.
Defense counsel offered an explanation for Doi's peculiar behavior. Specifically, he informed the court that Doi had sent Halekulani a letter via facsimile on Friday morning. The letter, directed to the president of Halekulani, proposed new settlement terms--terms inconsistent with those placed on the record.1 Plaintiff's counsel was surprised to learn that Doi had sent the letter.
Understandably frustrated, the court told the attorneys that it would invite Halekulani to file a motion to enforce the settlement in accordance with the agreement placed on the record if Doi failed to execute the settlement documents by the following Monday morning. The court indicated that the motion would be given an expedited hearing and warned that, "unless [Doi] tells me something I don't know at present, she doesn't have a ground that I know of to change her mind." The settlement agreement placed on the record, the court admonished, "was the binding agreement [Doi ] made." The court also made clear that Doi would have an opportunity to "submit something in writing before the hearing, or she can attend the hearing and place on the record what her position is in response to the motion." The court cautioned that Doi faced sanctions, in the form of having to pay any attorney's fees that Halekulani incurred in bringing the motion to compel settlement, if the motion were granted.
The court did not receive a signed settlement agreement by the Monday deadline; accordingly, Halekulani filed a motion to compel settlement. On Tuesday, May 16, 2000, the court held a hearing on that motion. Doi appeared for herself and requested a 30-day continuance in which to hire a new lawyer. She also complained that she "didn't make any agreement in writing before the settlement conference on Wednesday that I wanted to settle." The court patiently explained to Doi that [a]n agreement does not have to be in writing to be binding. An oral agreement is binding. . . .
We had a settlement conference at which the attorneys for both sides said there was an agreement, and then I made you also say whether you agreed with that -those terms or not, and you said you did. So if the basis of your concern is, "Gee, I didn't sign a document, that means I never agreed," I will tell you that you're wrong on the law. An oral agreement is a binding agreement.
Nonetheless, the court granted the continuance, setting a hearing date of July 3 and a deadline of June 15 for the filing of any papers.
On June 15, 2000, Doi--via a new lawyer (her second)-filed an opposition to Halekulani's motion to compel settlement.2 Doi also filed a paper styled "Plaintiff's Opposition to Proposed Sanctions," which stated only that she"propose[d] to testify as to sanctions and the merits at the hearing scheduled for July 3, 2000."
On June 30, 2000, the court faxed its inclined ruling on Halekulani's motion to compel settlement to the parties. The court indicated that it planned to grant the motion, and to impose sanctions on Doi for her unjust refusal to sign the settlement documents. The court heard argument on the motion on July 3, 2000. At argument Doi's new lawyer reversed the position that Doi had previously taken, insisting repeatedly that the settlement documents were not, in fact, consistent with the agreement previously placed on the record. Despite her prior indication that she would do so, Doi did not testify. The court was not persuaded; it granted Halekulani's motion to enforce the settlement.
The court then turned to the issue of sanctions. Again, although she had previously said she would testify, Doi declined to do so. Instead, her attorney stated on her behalf:
Insofar as any sanctions are concerned, I want to defer to the court on that. I understand the court's ruling. I understand the court's position. I understand the defendant's frustration in wanting to get the case over with. . . . So I don't like to -on matters like this, purely discretionary matters, I don't like to tell the court what my feelings are because I'm not certain of what actually happened. So I need to defer to the court on that.
The court decided that a sanction of $1,000, which was far less than the attorney fees incurred by Halekulani in bringing the motion to compel, was warranted.
Judgment was entered in accordance with the court's amended order compelling settlement and sanctioning Doi. The judgment dismissed the case with...
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