Monnastes v. Greenwood

Spearman, A.C.J.

¶1 In determining whether a party appealing an arbitration award has improved his or her position at a trial de novo, a trial court is to compare the compensatory damages awarded at trial with the compensatory damages awarded by the arbitrator or, as is the case here, with the nonappealing party’s offer of compromise. To the extent the nonappealing party seeks to replace the arbitrator’s award of compensatory damages with an offer of compromise that includes not only compensatory damages but also costs, that party should explicitly include costs as part of the offer of…