Aller v. Board of Regents
Appellant appeal from the judgment entered after the trial court dismissed the appellant' claims against the Regents of the University of California and UCLA (collectively the Regents) for the appellants failure to prosecute the case. Before this court the appellants do not directly challenge the dismissal. Instead, they claim the trial court committed reversible error when, prior to the dismissal, the court denied their request to enforce a purported oral settlement agreement with the Regents. The appellants assert that on March 2, 2004, they and the Regents reached a settlement agreement on the record in open court. They assert the settlement contained only three terms (1) a payment of $199,000; (2) a waiver of costs by each side; and (3) the dismissal of the action. The Regents contend, on the other hand, the purported settlement contained these terms and several others, chief among them, a term for the conditional waiver of doctor/patient privilege. At the hearing on the appellants' request to enforce their version of the settlement agreement, the court concluded the privilege waiver was a term in the oral settlement agreement. Consequently, the court denied the appellants' request.
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