Opinion ID: 1839674
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: did the trial judge err in awarding interest against the city of mound bayou?

Text: The trial judge awarded the contractors prejudgment interest from the date Barrett Engineering officially accepted the project on August 16, 1979, to the date of trial which commenced on January 16, 1984. The trial judge cited Town of Senatobia v. Ryan, 106 Miss. 357, 63 So. 680 (1913), in which a contractor was allowed interest on a verdict in an action for the amount due from a municipality for street repairing. The circuit judge also cited State Highway Commission v. Wunderlich, 194 Miss. 119, 122-123, 11 So.2d 437 (1943), which held that the State Highway Commission acted as a corporation when it entered a contract, thus was liable on claims for unliquidated damages for a breach of contract. The subsequent decision of City of Jackson v. Reed, a minor, 233 Miss. 280, 307, 102 So.2d 342 (1958), recognized that a municipality was liable for prejudgment interest, but not liable for interest on a judgment or decree against it. Due to the aforementioned authorities, the lower court was correct when he awarded prejudgment interest from the day the contract was accepted by Barrett until the trial date. In the future, however, courts must look to Miss. Code Ann. § 31-5-25 (Supp. 1985), which enables contractors to receive interest on past due contract payments. Since this action arose before this statute became effective, it does not apply here. In their brief and in oral argument, Mound Bayou attempted to show how Collins and Freeland juggled figures to make it appear they were owed more than they were actually due. No such attempt was made to prove this during the six-day trial below. The appellant failed to bring this out in the testimony of their only witness, Palmer Bartlett. As this Court sits in appellate review, such an argument is inappropriate. AFFIRMED. WALKER, C.J., ROY NOBLE LEE, P.J., and DAN M. LEE, PRATHER, ROBERTSON, SULLIVAN, ANDERSON and GRIFFIN, JJ., concur.