Opinion ID: 5487
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Hickman's Cross-Appeal

Text: Hickman argues that the district court erred in denying prejudgment interest on the award of backpay. This issue—whether prejudgment interest is proper when a court awards liquidated damages to a plaintiff in an ADEA suit—is one this Court intended to settle in Burns v. Texas City Refining, Inc., 890 F.2d 747 (5th Cir.1989). Upon reexamining the Burns opinion, however, we are constrained to admit that our earlier decision may have been less than precise. What the Court intended to say in Burns, and what we reemphasize today, is that this Circuit follows the Seventh Circuit's approach to prejudgment interest in ADEA cases. See Coston v. Plitt Theatres, Inc., 831 F.2d 1321, 1336 (7th Cir.1987), vacated on other grounds, 486 U.S. 1020, 108 S.Ct. 1990, 100 L.Ed.2d 223 (1988). In an ADEA case where liquidated damages are awarded, a court may not award prejudgment interest on either the backpay or the liquidated damage award. Any language in Burns that suggests otherwise is disapproved. In the instant case, because liquidated damages were awarded, the district court did not err in refusing to award Hickman prejudgment interest.