OPINION & ORDER

[Resolving Doc. 51]

JAMES S. GWIN, District Judge.

On May 30, 2017, Plaintiff Brian Butler was involved in a vehicular accident with Defendant David Dunn and Avery Dennison Corp.1 On October 21, 2019, Plaintiff attempted to accept a $20,000 settlement offer that Defendant had made during prior case conferences.2 Earlier, Plaintiff had rejected the $20,000 offer.

Defendant rejected Plaintiff's attempted acceptance of the earlier $20,000 offer. On October 24, 2019, Plaintiff filed a motion to enforce his reconsidered acceptance of the earlier $20,000 settlement offer.4 Defendants oppose.5

For the reasons stated below, the Court DENIES Plaintiff Butler's motion for relief.

I. Discussion

On October 17, 2019, counsel for Defendants wrote to Plaintiff "to confirm the status of negotiations."6 Defense Counsel confirmed that Defendants had earlier offered $20,000 to settle all claims, but Plaintiff had rejected that offer and demanded $77,500 instead.7 On the same day, Plaintiff's counsel responded, confirming Defendants' description of the negotiations.8

Plaintiff argues that Defendant's prior offer to settle for $20,000 was still available because Defendant never explicitly revoked that offer.9 He thus claims that accepting that offer on October 21, 2019 created a binding settlement.10

As a settlement is a contract, the Court applies relevant state contract law when determining whether a settlement is valid.11 All settlement events occurred in Ohio, thus the Court applies Ohio contract law.

"When an offer is rejected, it ceases to exist, and a subsequent attempted acceptance is inoperative to bind the offeror."12 "Where a counteroffer is made to an offer of settlement, that counteroffer acts to extinguish all previous offers, and the original offer cannot be accepted at a later date without a clear renewal of that offer."13

Here Plaintiff rejected Defendants' $20,000 offer before October 17, 2019.14 Plaintiff instead made a $77,500 counteroffer.15 There is no evidence in the record that Defendants renewed their offer of $20,000. Plaintiff cannot then, on October 21, 2019, attempt to accept Defendant's previous offer of $20,000 because that offer no longer exists.16 Under Ohio law, when "no valid contract exists, a court may not enforce such a settlement agreement."17

II. Conclusion

For the foregoing reasons, the Court DENIES Plaintiff's motion to enforce the settlement.

IT IS SO ORDERED.