Court Opinion

ID: 9446500
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:56:36.047257+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:40.508715
License: Public Domain

WOODBURY, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
I do not quite understand the basis for the decision that the trial court was not in error in failing to add preverdict interest to the award made by the jury. If it is conceded that plaintiff is entitled to such interest as a matter of substantive Massachusetts law, and that the federal court is free to disregard as a matter of procedure the Massachusetts practice of having the jury add the interest, and the damages have been fixed by the jury, I fail to see why the nature of the elements going into the damages has any bearing on the “inclusion and determination” of the interest on those damages.
I would, however, reach the same result as my associates by simply holding that the plaintiff lost his right to interest, if not by failing to request a proper instruction on the matter, at least by failing to call the attention of the trial court to the inadequacy of its instruction with respect to interest before the jury retired to consider its verdict.