Opinion
Civil Action No. 2:05cv1235-MHT.
November 22, 2006
OPINION AND ORDER
It is ORDERED that defendant LuAn Long's motion to strike (Doc. No. 68) is granted.
Three defendants in this case (Long, the Montgomery Housing Authority, and C. Michael McInnish) made an offer of judgment to plaintiff Terry G. Davis. They offered "to allow judgment to be taken against them for all Plaintiff's claims in the amount of $6,000 total (that is, $2,000 per Defendant) said sum to include not only all attorneys' fees, but also all compensatory and punitive damages Plaintiff seeks, or could have sought, against the Defendants."
Davis filed notice in this court that he accepted the offer as to Long only. Long moved to strike on the grounds that this was a counteroffer, not an acceptance. Long is correct.
"Under elementary principles of contract law, an offeree cannot accept a different offer from that made by the offeror. There must be a meeting of the minds." Johnson v. University College of University of Alabama in Birmingham, 706 F.2d 1205, 1209 (11th Cir. 1983) (finding that, where language of a settlement offer was all-encompassing, a purported acceptance that limited the terms of the offer was properly stricken). The offer here was not an offer of judgment against the parties individually, but rather, an offer of judgment against "them" on "all Plaintiff's claims." By contrast, Davis purports to accept as to Long, on some of his claims. In short, Davis's attempt to accept the offer as to one of the defendants is acceptance of a different offer, one that the defendants never made. Thus, it is not a valid acceptance and should be stricken.