Omar went to the front of the little taco shop and pulled a bottle of water and two Pacifico Light beers from the fridge and put them in a bag with the burritos. Time to take a meeting.
Chapter 16
Aaron Baker involuntarily blinked. He reread the email sent to him by the San Diego City Attorney. “The City offers to pay Ms. Young $6,667,000.00 for a release of all liability for Brad Gecina, the City, and any related person or entity from the beginning of time until the date of her acceptance.”
Aaron knew this was a multi-million-dollar case but their first offer in response was for a shit-ton of money. Aaron closed his eyes and exhaled hard. He picked up his phone and dialed.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Cassie. It’s Aaron Baker. We received an offer from the City to resolve the matter. This amount would mean your case is over, you couldn’t sue the City or Brad Gecina. If you accept it, that is.”
“Okay. How much is it?”
“Six million, six hundred sixty-seven thousand,” Aaron said with a steady tone.
Aaron pressed the receiver slightly harder against his ear because he wasn’t hearing a response.
He listened intently and was almost startled when he finally heard, “How much is that after your fee?”
“One sec,” Aaron clicked on his computer to bring up a calculator app. Take out twenty five percent. “Five million dollars.”
Aaron heard a sigh and soft mumblings, “Two-five,” Aaron thought he heard.
“I’m sorry Cassie. I couldn’t hear you.”
“I was just thinking out loud. Sorry. That’s a lot of money. What do you think?”
“I think it’s a very solid offer. Although I imagine the City has more money available. If it settles early there is no need for you to have to go through a deposition. To be a witness on the stand. You don’t have to relive this and can try to move on with your life. It seems to me the City really wants to bury this. We might get their best number before we file a lawsuit. Plus, you save a lot of money because my fees are lower pre-suit.”
“Hmm, two point five,” Cassie mumbled softly.
Aaron shook his head. “I’m sorry, Cassie. I couldn’t really hear you, but your amount after my fee would be five million.”
“I heard you,” Cassie snapped.
“Oh. Okay. Sorry. Do you want to take some time and think about this for a while? Right now your options are to accept, reject, reject and counter, or have me try to keep the offer open and feel out if there is a number we can get them to.”
“For some reason I was hoping to net six,” Cassie said in a softer tone.
Aaron did the simple math in his head. “Hold on a second.” He clicked on the calculator program and confirmed he was right. “That means we would need eight million to net you six.”
“Do you think we’ll lose the offer if we counter at eight?”
Aaron shook his pen. “I doubt it. But it’s impossible to tell. We started at fifteen and they came back at six point seven. I think both initial offers were reasonable. But it’s a game of chicken. If we wanted to end up eight, we might want to counter at something just over ten.”
“Can we get eight?”
“I don’t know. There are going to be levels of decision makers. The Mayor. City Council. The City Attorney. It’s more complicated than negotiating with a single decision maker so I can’t really get a read on what numbers they’re signaling they can do. My gut tells me eight would be possible. Having this case drag on for years in the media doesn’t help anyone in office. They have incentive to see this shut down as soon as possible. The question is, how much of this do you want to live through again?”
“I want to move on. I don’t know. It’s just—what if we could get more and we accept less?”
“That’s always a fear. But if we can get to an amount you will be content with, then you’ll be content. If we leave a little money on the table, it’s not the end of the world, because you’ll be content. There’s always a risk-reward balance you have to take. Here the risk is we go all the way to trial and get a jury who thinks your payout will be from their tax dollars. They might think a million dollars is a lot of money. Which it is. We could end up getting one million after trial. That would be five million less than their current offer.” Aaron tapped his pen on his legal pad. “There’s a real risk that, after going through years of litigation, we could end up with a lot less than their offer.”
Cassie was silent for a few seconds. She asked, “Should we just take that offer then?”
Aaron involuntarily shrugged his shoulders. “That would be reasonable. It’s a big offer. It’s a good offer. But I doubt it’s their best offer. If your goal was eight, I’d say we counter in the tens. If your goal is to just get them to come up a bit, into the sevens and maybe eight, I’d suggest we counter just under ten to signal we’re trying hard to meet them and resolve this. Giving up a lot of ground sends a strong signal you want this resolved, but also limits how much we can get.”
“Let’s do that.”
Aaron starting writing on his pad. “If your goal is eight and you want to try to get there quickly, I’d suggest we counter at nine million three hundred and thirty thousand. If you add that number to their number and divide by two, we end up at eight million. So, if we were to split the difference from their number and our counter, we would land at eight. We might be a little early in negotiating to try to split the difference. But that is how a lot of cases eventually resolve.”
“Sounds a little like guessing.”
“It is. Your hard damages. Medical bills. Missed work. Those are easy to calculate. Your general damages. Your pain and suffering are a lot harder to quantify and those are the bigger part of our case. No two, let alone twelve, people will value it exactly the same. So, a case could be worth ten million this time but the exact same case could be worth one million the next time. It all depends on the jury. It’s impossible to predict, which is why almost every civil lawsuit settles. People want control over an outcome.”
“Let’s go with your number.”
Aaron leaned back in his chair. “You are in complete control of the offers. I’ll make suggestions to you, but I want to make sure you understand that you are one hundred percent in charge of what numbers will be used to resolve this.”
“Okay. Let’s do that nine number you said.”
“Nine million three hundred thirty thousand?”
“Yes.”
“Want time to think it over? We don’t have to respond immediately.”
“No. Just do it.”
“Okay. The second I hear something I’ll text you.”
“Bye.”
“Goodbye.” Aaron placed the phone on the receiver and sent Cassie a quick email recapping the offer made by the City and her desire to counter. He then replied to the City’s email, thanking the City for its offer, rejecting it, and countering at nine point three-three million.
Aaron looked at a stack of papers on his desk and wondered how the heck he was going to be able to focus on doing mundane discovery for a small homeowners’ association dispute when he just made a demand equal to a thousand times the amount in dispute in that case.
Just start working, Aaron thought as he grabbed the papers and started reading. A few minutes later, while Aaron was re-reading a question for a leaky pipe case, his phone rang.
“Aaron Baker.”
“Hi, Aaron. Colin McDonald. Just got your email and wanted to talk with you about what number can get this done. I know the City is not going to get to nine. It’s too close to ten and that just rings a bell for being an incredibly huge number.”
“We’ll see,” Aaron said.
“Look, Aaron. I’m not trying to get you to negotiate against yourself here, but for me to get authorization to counter isn’t easy. I want you to know that our next number will be our best number so I want to see if I can get it to something you would accept.”
“Thanks for the call and the candor.” Aaro
n bluffed, “We looked at some of the celebrity settlements for sexual assault and getting ten million shouldn’t be an issue with most juries. That’s why we rejected an offer in the sixes and would reject an offer in the sevens.”
“You’d reject an offer in the seven million dollar range?”
“Yes, we will. Think about all the politicians and their reelection if this case drags on. This poor woman reported the cop and nothing was done. He stalked and harassed her. He raped her while on duty. I think the fact that we’re under ten should be a blessing to you. The City of San Diego’s budget is three point six billion a year. The police department budget alone is half a billion. Look, Colin. A million is a big number, but in context of the City budget it’s almost a rounding error.”
“Hey, let’s not get sidetracked and start posturing. I’m just trying to find a number that if I was able to get authority to offer could work. If I heard you correctly, if we came back at seven million you would reject. What if we came back at eight million? Not that I have authority, or could even get the City on board with that, but would that work?”
Aaron felt his heart pound. He took a breath and calmly said, “I think a seven-figure number that starts with eight would probably work.”
“If I get that kind of offer on the table, will you get it accepted?”
“I don’t have authority to accept, but I’m confident we’d be done.”
“I’ll try to get that and be in touch with you soon.”
“Thanks, Colin.”
“Bye.”
Aaron hung up the phone and jumped out of his chair. He held his arms high like an official ruling a touchdown was good. Then he grabbed his cell phone to share the news of the likely offer with his wife. Once he started typing a text he sat down, ashamed of being so happy. A big number on this case wasn’t cause for a joyous celebration because it came from tragedy. Aaron vowed to donate a large portion of his share to support so many victims who would never be able to recover anything for their sexual abuse.
Aaron called Cassie back from his landline.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Cassie. I just wanted to relay a minor update. I sent the rejection and counter and got a call from the City. We can expect a response, most likely a counter, in the next day or two. I think there’s a very good chance they’ll be at eight million.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I can’t promise that. They might come back with less than that, but my feeling is they probably will.” Aaron ran his hand against his short hair, hoping he wasn’t getting her hopes up too high. “It’s possible they won’t come up at all, though.”
“But your sense is we might get an eight offer. Which would net me six?”
“That’s my sense. Yes. But it’s not locked in.”
“How fast would they pay?”
“Generally, they would write a check made out to both of us in a week or two. Then we’d both sign it, I’d put it into my trust account and then pay you. I’d say within a few weeks.”
“Anything we can do to make it go faster? I was thinking I might want to move. Or at least go on a trip and get away from this apartment where … it happened.”
“Sure. If we sign a settlement agreement, we can have them wire funds directly to my trust instead of sending a check, then I can wire funds to your account. And if we get a settlement agreement signed, I can even advance some funds. I don’t have that kind of personal money but could at least advance enough to get you out of town.”
“Let’s do that.”
“If we get an offer you want to accept, I’ll push for as fast a payment as possible.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
Chapter 17
Jo hopped into Dzuy’s Grand Cherokee and gave him a little kiss. “How was your day?” she asked as she fastened her seatbelt.
Dzuy sighed. “Kind of rough. My ex’s mom passed away today. We knew it was going to be sometime soon, but not this soon. It’s sad. I was close to her and the rest of her family. So it feels really strange for me to be on the outside.”
Jo put her hand on Dzuy’s shoulder. “I’m sorry. What can I do?”
Dzuy shook his head. “Nothing. Right?” He looked towards her. “Is it proper to bring a date to a funeral?” He shook his head. “Most of the family thinks we’re still together.”
Jo’s pulse quickened. If she wasn’t there, would the emotion and pressure of the entire family bring Dzuy and his ex back together? If she was there, would everyone hate her and think terrible things about Dzuy? How selfish was it to even think of herself when a human being just passed away? “I don’t think there’s a right or wrong. I’ll go with you, stay away, whatever you need.”
“Thanks.”
Jo broke a short silence by saying, “I’m plenty confident that you can go by yourself, be a supportive friend, and come back to me. I also can go with you, be very polite and stay in the background. Whichever is fine.”
“Thanks.”
Jo felt Dzuy was shutting down. She wanted him to open up more. “When did you find out?”
Dzuy looked at the clock on the dashboard. “Twenty minutes ago.”
Jo’s eyes widened. She squeezed his shoulder. “Do you want to go be with your ex and her family?”
“Kind of. But I want to be around you. Is it selfish that I’d rather be with you than with them?”
“I don’t think so. Unless they need you. But you’ve been around them a lot less lately, right?”
Dzuy nodded.
Jo moved her hand off Dzuy’s shoulder and squeezed his hand. “What do you want to do?”
“Take my mind off things. Maybe just watch TV or play a video game.”
“Do you want to be alone?”
“Uh uh,” Dzuy said, while shaking his head.
“Want to go to your place and order pizza?”
Dzuy nodded.
“Want me to drive?”
Dzuy shook his head.
“Before we settle in for the night, should we call or text to see if there’s anything we can do or bring the family?” Jo asked.
“Probably.” Dzuy picked up his phone and saw the text from his ex, Stacey, saying her mother passed. He hadn’t replied or called her back yet. He showed Jo the text message. “What do I say?”
Jo shrugged. “Something like, I’m sorry for your loss. Is there anything I can do?”
“Thanks, that’s perfect.” Dzuy sent that exact message.
They sat in silence for a moment until Dzuy put the car in reverse to back out of the parking spot. Just as he put the car into drive, his phone rang. Caller ID showed it was Stacey.
Jo pointed to the spot they just pulled out of. “Go back in. I can go to my office while you talk.”
Dzuy pulled back into the spot. “Please stay.”
Jo nodded and put her hand on his thigh.
The blue tooth automatically connected the phone through the car’s speakers. “Hey, Stace. We’re so sorry for your loss,” Dzuy answered.
“Thanks, Dzuy,” Stacey said with an unsteady voice. Jo could tell she had been crying and was likely to cry again. “Who’s we?”
“Me and… Uh… My girlfriend, Jo. She’s in the car.”
“I’m sorry for your loss, Stacey. Dzuy said such wonderful things about your mom.”
“Thanks. She was amazing…” Stacey said and started sobbing. “Was. It’s so awful to say was.”
“Chad and Becky in town?” Dzuy asked.
“Not yet. Chad will be here tomorrow,” Stacey said with her voice steadying a bit. “Becky will be here Wednesday and they’re staying til after the funeral on Saturday.” With that Stacey started sobbing again.
Jo assumed Chad and Becky were her siblings. “Who is with you now?” Jo asked.
“No one. Shell is out of town. Nala and Addy are coming over after their shift at eleven thirty.”
Jo looked at Dzuy, thinking four hours was way too long for Stacey to be alone. “We were just about to pick up di
nner. Can we bring you something to eat?”
“If you don’t mind. Yeah.”
“Of course not,” Jo said. She whispered, “Do you know where she lives?”
“You moved into Shelly’s place off India Street, right?”
“Yeah.”
“We’ll be there in half an hour.”
“Thanks.”
“Bye,” Jo said.
“Bye.”
Dzuy hung up.
“She’s in little Italy?”
Dzuy nodded.
“I’ll order some Italian food and we can bring it there. What’s your favorite place?”
“Sole Luna,” Dzuy answered. “It’s not in Little Italy, but not too far out of the way. Get lasagna for Stacey. I’ll take a pasta bolognaise. Both are amazing. The chicken parm is great. The tortellini is good too.”
Jo reached into her purse and pulled out her cell. She found the number and ordered all four of Dzuy’s recommendations, hoping for a touch of comfort in comfort food. Plus, leftovers never hurt anyone.
“Thanks for thinking about her and coming over there,” Dzuy said after a few minutes of driving in silence.
“It’s the right thing to do, Dzuy. It might be awkward, knowing you were in love with her. But you were, so she has to have some good in her, and she’s hurting. It’s amazing how much strength victims draw from a good support system. I see it in court all the time. Sure, this is a little different. But the grief. The pain. Those are the same, and Stacey needs to feel like she isn’t alone. If we can step in until her friends and family arrive, we should.”
“Hmpf,” Dzuy puffed his chest out.
“What?”
“I didn’t think the first person I told about you being my girlfriend would be my ex-girlfriend. While taking you to meet her.”
Jo smiled at Dzuy. “You don’t have to worry about labels.”
“Oh, oops. I guess we’re not there yet. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry, Dzuy. I’m happy to have you as my boyfriend.”
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