Court Opinion

ID: 9688999
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 18:15:47.888197+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:43.426600
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(dissenting).
If Plaintiff/Appellant is filled with uncertainty with what he has coming, and is, additionally, smitten with no desire to render a true and fair accounting, how can Defendant/Appellee be filled with certainty regarding what is owing? These are almost the exact words used in the closing sentence of my dissent in Amert v. Ziebarth Constr. Co., 400 N.W.2d 888, 892 (S.D.1987). Again, I believe the trial court is right and the majority opinion is wrong on its determination of prejudgment interest. I would affirm and not reverse the trial court.
Reliance is placed upon two of my writings which were majority opinions in this Court: Meyer v. Dixon, 369 N.W.2d 658, 659 (S.D.1985), and Hanson v. Funk Seeds Int’l, 373 N.W.2d 30, 36 (S.D.1985). See also Cole v. Melvin, 441 F.Supp. 193, 210 (D.S.D.1977). However, my basic rationale emanates from the granddaddy of the prejudgment interest cases, namely, Beka v. Lithium Corp. of America, 77 S.D. 370, 375, 92 N.W.2d 156, 159-60 (1958), which states: “The reason for denying interest on a claim is that where the person liable does not know what sum he owes, he cannot be in default for not paying.”
Need I emphasize that neither party provided the full amount of dollar figures that would have allowed a final tabulation of an amount owing between the parties? There was great uncertainty and confusion between these two men concerning profits and losses; for this reason, they agreed to take all records to an accountant. Plaintiff/Appellant testified, inter alia, that he failed to give certain records to the accountant and that some of these records were in his possession. For example, Plaintiff/Appellant failed to provide the accountant with records showing a partnership loss of $1,041.12 and a $108.00 profit pocketed by him on another transaction. Defendant/Appellee was also less than completely honest with the accountant. In fact, only depositions revealed a sizeable profit which inured to the benefit of Defendant/ Appellee.
Judge McKeever heard all of this testimony and noted, in concluding language, that a final amount due Plaintiff/Appellant was potentially ascertainable. However, he also noted that neither party would/did provide a full amount of figures. An example, other than the above, was Plaintiff/Appellant’s failure to provide an amount of money his brother-in-law had paid him for transportation, which amount had already been paid by Defendant/Appel-lee. This amount was discovered shortly before or during trial. It is a fair statement to say that both parties did not provide a full accounting to each other prior to trial. Without any doubt, neither party knew the outcome of the trial/amount of the damage award until the trial judge made a final decision, sorting out all the facts, claims, transactions, dealings, and documents existing which pertained to the litigants’ business affairs.
Until the trial judge made a final decision, sorting out all the facts, claims, transactions, dealings, and documents existing which pertained to the litigants’ business affairs and which arose from testimony, could Defendant/Appellee actually know the amount owed? Also, Defendant/Ap-pellee did not have “reasonably available information” by which he could have computed the true amount owed because Plaintiff/Appellant exclusively had this information in his. possession and withheld it. *425Here, under these circumstances, it was not “clear that the plaintiff is entitled to recover a sum certain, or that the damages sought are capable of being made certain by calculation....” Amert v. Ziebarth Constr. Co., 400 N.W.2d at 892 (Henderson, J., dissenting). When neither party would divulge the transactions to one another, it was impossible to calculate the damages with certainty. Only the trial judge, by sifting and sorting, could determine the damages. See Fullerton Lumber Co. v. Reindl, 331 N.W.2d 293 (S.D.1983). When there is noncooperation, concealment, and suggestion of behind-the-back deals, how can any court hold that the “right to recover [is] vested in [a] plaintiff on a particular day”? Amert, 400 N.W.2d at 892 (Henderson, J., dissenting).
In Chesapeake Indus, v. Togova Enterprises, 149 Cal.App.3d 901, 907, 197 Cal.Rptr. 348, 352 (1983), cited in the majority opinion, I note that said court acknowledged prior California decisions which opined “ ‘where an accounting is required in order to arrive at a sum justly due, interest is not allowed.’ ” 149 Cal.App.3d at 908, 197 Cal.Rptr. at 352 (citations omitted). See also 23 Cal.Jur.3d Damages § 91 (1975). This could be an easy solution to this case, but I hasten to point out two factors: (1) This is not a lawsuit on an accounting; and (2) the court in Chesapeake Indus, held that an accounting did not foreclose the possibility of prejudgment interest. However, in Chesapeake Indus., prejudgment interest was not permitted because of the circumstances of the accounting and the amount due was not sufficiently capable of being made certain.
Let us peruse a rather lofty thought expressed in Subsurfco, Inc. v. B-Y Water Dist., 369 N.W.2d 129, 131 (S.D.1985):
“Interest, as a part of damages, is allowed, not by application of arbitrary rules, but as a result of the justice of the individual case....”
Id. (quoting 22 Am.Jur.2d Damages § 179 (1965)) (emphasis supplied). Upon that language, I rationally defend Judge McKeever’s decision. He tempered arbitrary rules with common sense and “justice of the individual case.” Were the judgment entered in favor of Defendant/Appellee, i.e., were the tables reversed, yet, I would deny prejudgment interest for the reason that the parties created a situation which begot uncertainty. Judge McKeever recognized that the ultimate balance or figure was ascertainable and specifically expressed that under most circumstances, interest would accrue per South Dakota law. He reasoned that the final figure or amount due and owing was unascertainable until trial because of both parties’ conduct. Finding of Fact V reads:
That the final amount due Plaintiff was not ascertainable in 1979 when both parties provided figures to the agreed upon accountant, because neither party supplied the full amount of figures that would have allowed a final tabulation until trial or shortly before through discovery.
Conclusion of Law V reads:
Due to the actions of both parties not supplying all of the figures to the accountant, both parties are estopped from any interest on any judgment due either under the original claim or had the Defendant been successful on his counterclaim.
These are not clearly erroneous. In re Estate of Hobelsberger, 85 S.D. 282, 181 N.W.2d 455 (1970). I am not convinced that a mistake has been made. The word “estopped” does not mean that the trial judge used any doctrine of equitable estop-pel, estoppel in pais, promissory estoppel, or detrimental reliance. He might well have utilized the word “precluded.” The driving force behind the trial judge’s use of the word “estopped” is that he believed the actions of each party had caused confusion and uncertainty, thereby mandating the denial of prejudgment interest. These disputants, by their procedural and substantive weaknesses, precipitated conflict which settled in our courts and the resolution of this conflict by the offices of the circuit court judge was fair and just.