Opinion ID: 1200092
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Prejudgment InterestFrom Accrual of Cause of Action

Text: The next question is: when does the prejudgment interest under W.Va.Code, 56-6-31 [1981] begin to run? We hold that the statute, see supra note 4, contemplates the calculation of such interest commencing with the date on which the cause of action accrued. The statute states that special or liquidated damages shall bear interest from the date the right to bring the same shall have accrued[.] This inexact language obviously means from the date the right to bring [an action for] the same [such damages] shall have accrued[.] Accrue, for purposes of determining when a cause of action accrues, ordinarily means to come into existence; to become vested. Dunn v. Bank of Union, 74 W.Va. 594, 599, 82 S.E. 758, 760 (1914). See also Black's Law Dictionary 19 (5th ed. 1979). In syllabus point 1 of Jones v. Trustees of Bethany College, ___ W.Va. ___, 351 S.E.2d 183 (1986), this Court held that [t]he statute of limitations ordinarily begins to run when the right to bring an action for personal injuries accrues[,] which is when the injury is inflicted. We agree with what was said in State v. Phillips, 470 P.2d 266 (Alaska 1970), with respect to when prejudgment interest begins to run: For a cause of action to accrue, one party must have breached a duty to the other, and the other must have been injured. At the moment the cause of action accrued, the injured party was entitled to be left whole and became immediately entitled to be made whole. Id. at 274. Therefore, prejudgment interest [runs] from the time the cause of action accrues, id., that is, from the date of injury. Guin v. Ha, 591 P.2d 1281, 1284 (Alaska 1979). See also Davis v. Chism, 513 P.2d 475, 481 (Alaska 1973). By providing in W.Va.Code, 56-6-31 [1981] that prejudgment interest on special or liquidated damages is to be computed from the date the cause of action accrued, the legislature implicitly decided to avoid the complications inherent in calculating prejudgment interest on each element of special or liquidated damages from the respective dates on which each element was incurred. We recognize that damages are typically incurred intermittently throughout the prejudgment period.... [para.] [A] system which would force litigants to determine precisely when each element of a plaintiff's damage award was incurred would impose an onerous burden on both the trial bench and bar. Cavnar v. Quality Control Parking, Inc., 696 S.W.2d 549, 554-55 (Tex. 1985). Accord, Morgan v. Ceiling Fan Warehouse, Inc. No. 3, 725 S.W.2d 715, 716 (Tex.1987). [7] In view of the foregoing, this Court holds that under W.Va.Code, 56-6-31, as amended, prejudgment interest on special or liquidated damages is calculated from the date on which the cause of action accrued, which in a personal injury action is, ordinarily, when the injury is inflicted.