Opinion ID: 1703673
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: interests on judgments

Text: Unless otherwise provided by law, if a judgment for money is a civil case is affirmed or the appeal is dismissed, whatever interest is provided by law shall be payable from the date the judgment was entered in the trial court. If a judgment is modified or reversed with a direction that a judgment for money be entered in the trial court, the certificate of judgment shall contain instructions with respect to allowance of interest. In the instant case, the trial court granted the defendant's motion for a judgment notwithstanding the jury verdict in favor of the plaintiff. The plaintiff appealed, and the cause was reversed and the trial court was instructed to reinstate the jury verdict. Title 9, § 63, Code of Alabama 1940, provides: Judgments and decrees for the payment of money, other than costs, bear interest from the day of rendition. The question is whether the plaintiff is entitled to interest from the date of the jury verdict. We hold that she is. Several jurisdictions have so held, reasoning that when the delay in entering judgment on the verdict was occasioned by the party against whom it was rendered, the successful party, on appeal, is entitled to interest from the date of the verdict. See Annot., 1 A.L.R.2d 479 (1948). In Hewitt v. General Tire and Rubber Company, 5 Utah 2d 379, 302 P.2d 712, 713 (1956), the Supreme Court of Utah, having previously reversed a judgment setting aside a jury verdict in the same case (3 Utah 2d 354, 284 P.2d 471), said: ... The court's order entering judgment for the defendant was in error and abortive, and when this court issued its mandate ordering the judgment for defendant vacated and the judgment on the verdict for plaintiff reinstated, it vitalized that judgment to the same extent and with the same force as though the trial court had never entered the abortive and erroneous judgment for defendant. We can see no good reason why the plaintiff should not be allowed interest from the date of the jury verdict. When a defendant appeals from a judgment entered in favor of the plaintiff, and the same is affirmed, the judgment bears interest from the date of rendition. Why should the rule be different when the trial court, on motion of the defendant, sets aside a verdict in favor of the plaintiff, who is then compelled to appeal, if he is successful in having the original verdict reinstated? The appellant's motion to allow interest from the date of the jury verdict is hereby granted. OPINION EXTENDED. MOTION TO ALLOW INTEREST GRANTED. APPLICATION FOR REHEARING OVERRULED.