Opinion ID: 2074647
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Termination of prejudgment interest.

Text: By notice of review, Nancy argues that the court erred in stopping the accrual of interest one year after Robert became aware of the commodity losses. SDCL 21-1-11 allows for the termination of prejudgment interest only if the debtor is prevented by law, or by the act of the creditor, from paying the debt. The court terminated the prejudgment interest because: A one-year period of investigation from August 6, 1985 would have been reasonable for purposes of calculating interest. Although this finding suggests that Patricia was prevented from paying her liability to the trust due to other parties' delay, it does not satisfy the requirement of the statute. To terminate the accrual of prejudgment interest, the court must specifically find the debtor was prevented from paying the debt and explain how that situation arose. Therefore, we remand this issue to the court to determine if, within the meaning of SDCL 21-1-11, Patricia was prevented from paying her liability to the trust.