Opinion ID: 2570667
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: SPU Must Pay the Statutory Interest Rate on Back Payments

Text: ¶ 29 SPU illegally charged ratepayers for hydrant costs before 2005, so it had to refund the charges for three years as allowed by the applicable statute of limitations. Lane wants his payments to be with interest; Seattle opposes. The trial court gave Lane interest at one percent. Lane appealed, saying he is entitled to more. Seattle says he is entitled to none (or, at most, one percent). ¶ 30 Governments cannot be sued for money without their consent. Architectural Woods, Inc. v. State, 92 Wash.2d 521, 526, 598 P.2d 1372 (1979). More to the point, local governments cannot be sued for interest without the State's consent. Our Lady of Lourdes Hosp. v. Franklin County, 120 Wash.2d 439, 455-56, 842 P.2d 956 (1993). But absent sovereign immunity, parties must pay 12 percent interest on judicial awards from the time of judgment to the time of payment. RCW 4.56.110(4); RCW 19.52.020. They must also pay 12 percent on the time from the injury to the judgment if the damages are liquidated, that is, if it is possible to compute the amount with exactness, without reliance on opinion or discretion. Prier v. Refrigeration Eng'g Co., 74 Wash.2d 25, 32, 442 P.2d 621 (1968); RCW 19.52.020. The damages here are clearly liquidated because they are based only on the amounts customers wrongly paid. So if SPU is not immune from judgment, it must pay 12 percent interest on both the pre- and post-judgment award. ¶ 31 Lane offers three reasons why he should be awarded statutory interest on his refund payments from SPU, and if he is correct on any of them, he receives interest at the judgment rate. His best argument is that a statute waives immunity for claims against government-run utilities, allowing interest on part of those claims. ¶ 32 RCW 80.04.440 allows people to sue water companies for all loss, damage or injury resulting from an illegal act. On its face, all loss includes interest. Depriving a party of money for a time deprives him of its productive use during that time. Justice delayed is justice denied is literally true for money. If a losing party has wrongfully kept another's money at 12 percent interest for six years before giving it back, it is the same as taking the lost value. All loss, damage or injury includes interest on money improperly taken or withheld. ¶ 33 Seattle argues that the statute does not include the word interest. Neither does it expressly include medical bills or lost work time or profits, but the phrase all loss, damage or injury has been held to include those. See, e.g., Nat'l Union Ins. Co. of Pittsburgh, Pa. v. Puget Sound Power & Light, 94 Wash.App. 163, 168, 175, 972 P.2d 481 (1999). Seattle says we would have to infer state consent to interest payments from the statute. However, all loss, damage or injury is clear, broad, and inclusive. We have no authority to judicially amend the broad statute to read all loss (except interest). ¶ 34 The trial court seems to have split the difference and held the statute waived immunity for interest, but not for interest at the judgment rate. Instead, the trial court gave one percent interest because the monthly amounts were so small that a reasonable investor could have placed the money only in a low interest account. We reject this approach for two reasons. ¶ 35 First, RCW 80.04.440 says nothing about a reasonably prudent investor. It consents to suit for all loss, damage or injury and does not exempt from those losses the usual judgment interest. Second, any reasonably prudent investor test invites complex factual questions about investment returns. The legislature has decided the number by setting the statutory rate of 12 percent, RCW 4.56.110(4); RCW 19.52.020 (set for all judgments), and we have no reason to deviate from it. All loss includes interest at the judgment rate. SPU must pay back the payments at the statutory rate.