Opinion ID: 439951
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Rate of pre-judgment interest for the 1974-82 period

Text: 133 In paragraph 19 of its 1974 order, the district court made the following ruling on pre-judgment interest: 134 19. INTEREST--With respect to all monies to be paid under the foregoing provisions of this Order, the Company shall pay six percent interest per annum from the date the violation occurred giving rise to said liability through the date upon which payment is made in accordance with this Order. 135 1974 Remedial Order, 374 F.Supp. at 1389. In 1974, the district court believed that the judgment it was entering was a final one (R. 7, at 4; R. 115, at 25, 26). The panel in Laffey II, however, ruled in 1980 that the 1974 order was not a final judgment, 642 F.2d 578, 583-84 (1980). This ruling had the effect of extending the prejudgment period from May 20, 1974 through the entry of final judgment on November 30, 1982. 136 Following the decision in Laffey II, plaintiffs moved for a determination of the pre-judgment interest that should apply to this additional period. Plaintiffs noted that interest rates generally had risen greatly after 1974 and recommended that the rate for each year of the 1974-82 period be 90% of the average prime rate for that year, compounded quarterly. At the hearing on plaintiffs' motion, the district court concluded that its prior ruling should not be revised. We affirm. 137 We are unpersuaded by plaintiffs' argument that the district court did not make a decision as to the rate of interest that should be awarded from 1974 to 1982. In rejecting plaintiffs' contention, the district judge stated that he had determined the interest to be awarded without regard to the length of the pre-judgment period. R. 120; Laffey v. Northwest Airlines, Inc., 29 Empl.Prac.Dec. (CCH) 25,330, 25,332 (D.D.C. Oct. 6, 1981). Moreover, the express terms of the 1974 order set no limit on the length of the pre-judgment period. We stress that although the 1974 judgment was ultimately declared non-final, we entertained in Laffey I all objections to dispositive rulings that the parties placed before us. See Laffey II, 642 F.2d at 584 n. 49. We have discussed above the salutary purposes served by the doctrine of the law of the case. According to that doctrine, 138 a decision on an issue of law made at one stage of a case becomes a binding precedent to be followed in successive stages of the same litigation. 139 1B J. Moore, Moore's Federal Practice p 0.404 (1983). Reconsideration of a prior decision, unappealed at an earlier stage although the opportunity to do so was present, is justified only in a limited number of circumstances: 140 [The law of the case] must be followed in all subsequent proceedings in the same case in the trial court or on a later appeal in the appellate court, unless the evidence on a subsequent trial was substantially different, controlling authority has since made a contrary decision of the law applicable to such issues, or the decision was clearly erroneous and would work a manifest injustice. 141 White v. Murtha, 377 F.2d 428, 431-32 (5th Cir.1967). See also Pettway v. American Cast Iron Pipe Co., 576 F.2d 1157, 1189-90 (5th Cir.1978), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1115, 99 S.Ct. 1020, 59 L.Ed.2d 74 (1979); Jennings v. Patterson, 488 F.2d 436, 441 n. 4 (5th Cir.1974). None of the above criteria for reopening the district court's decision obtains here. We therefore affirm the district court's holding that plaintiffs are entitled to pre-judgment interest at six percent simple for the 1974-82 period. 142