Defendant appealed, assigning error, inter alia, to this method of calculating prejudgment interest. 128 N.C. App. On 8 July 1998 this Court allowed plaintiff's petition for discretionary review. Two statutes interact in this situation. Interest on an award in an action other than contract shall be at the legal rate.
Legislative intent controls the meaning of a statute.
To determine legislative intent, a court must analyze the statute as a whole, considering the chosen words themselves, the spirit of the act, and the objectives the statute seeks to accomplish. Hyler v. GTE Prods. The Court's analysis therefore properly begins with the words themselves. Correll v. Division of Soc. 97- 10.2 and Rule 68 of the North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure.