Opinion ID: 2399087
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Calculation of the Proportionate Share of Damages

Text: In her amended judgment, the trial justice ordered defendant LCA to pay its proportionate share of the parking expenses, with statutory interest, from January 1, 1992. She determined that proportion by rounding up the percentage proposed by defendant's expert witness from 18.18 percent to 19 percent. LCA contends that the trial justice erred in rounding up that percentage up to 19 percent and maintains that, instead, she should have rounded it down to 18 percent. At trial, various experts presented estimates of LCA's tax expense allocation ranging from 19 to 23.5 percent, any of which the trial justice properly could have accepted. In addition, defense expert, James Mercurio (Mercurio), estimated that LCA's proportionate share of the annual cost of the fire suppression system to be 18.18 percent by calculating the actual cost of the sprinklers in the easement area. The trial justice held defendant to be: absolutely responsible for its fair share, including taxes of the expense of operating and maintaining the parking spaces from which it exclusively benefits. The Court accepts as credible the testimony of Tax Assessor Booth that the average value of a parking space in the relevant Thames Street area is $10,000. With reference to the maintenance of the sprinkler system, insurance, cleaning, repair maintenance, lighting and management costs, the Court endorses Mr. Mercurio's percentage, calculated by sprinkler heads, of 19% (rounded off). When calculated as a percentage, the $10,000 average value of each parking space exceeded 19 percent of the total value of the 360 Thames Street property. Accordingly, the trial justice could have found that LCA's tax expense to be that same percentage amount. Instead, however, in an attempt to do substantial justice between the parties, she calculated LCA's proportionate share of the parking expenses [6] and taxes to amount to 19 percent. After reviewing the record evidence, we cannot say that this was erroneous. LCA finally maintains that the trial justice's decision to award damages and interest from January 1, 1992, contradicted her bench ruling. In, that ruling, she denied damages to plaintiff for any period before July 1, 1992, because none of the current owners had an ownership interest in 360 Thames Street before that date. For its part, 360 Thames Street contends that the trial justice erred in not awarding damages for 1990 and 1991. It asserts that since 1990, two of the condominium units at 360 Thames Street were owned by a current owner and that G.L.1956 chapter 36.1 of title 34, entitled the Rhode Island Condominium Act, empowered the condominium association to sue on behalf of the owners, regardless of who the specific owners might have been at the time. The record reveals that plaintiffs' counsel made an in-court admission that none of the current owners had an ownership interest in 360 Thames Street before July 1992; instead, he stated that the owners were two now-defunct banks that also ran the association and paid all the taxes from 1990 to June 1992. The trial justice reasonably relied upon this admission and ruled that LCA was not responsible to reimburse any tax payments made before July 1, 1992. However, when the subsequent judgment was entered, she ordered damages and interest to commence as of January 1, 1992, rather than July 1, 1992. Such change of date was error.