Court Opinion

ID: 9863736
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 05:53:27.283297+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:04:14.238494
License: Public Domain

BAKES, Justice
(dissenting):
I dissent. In the previous appeal this Court affirmed the trial court’s judgment as to the amount of the breach, but ordered that it should modify its judgment by allowing interest from the date of the breach, pursuant to I.C. § 28-22-104. On remand, the trial court should have calculated interest from the date of the breach to the date of original judgment and added that amount along with the costs of the original judgment to the original judgment. Such action would place the appellant in the same position as if the trial court had ruled correctly on the issue of pre-judgment interest in the original proceeding. After modifying its judgment, the trial court should allow interest on that judgment pursuant to I.C. § 28-22-104 until payment.
The above procedure for calculation of interest was followed by the California Supreme Court in the case of Stockton Theatres, Inc. v. Palermo, 55 Cal.2d 439, 11 Cal.Rptr. 580, 360 P.2d 76 (1961), quoted by the majority, which held that:
“When a judgment is modified upon appeal, whether upward or downward, the new sum draws interest from the date of entry of the original order, not from the date of the new judgment. (Citations omitted). On the other hand, when a judgment is reversed on appeal the new award subsequently entered by the trial court can bear interest only from the date of entry of such new judgment. Cowdery v. London, etc., Bank, 139 Cal. 298, 303, 73 P. 196.” 11 Cal.Rptr. at 582, 360 P.2d at 78.
In this action, the trial court judgment was modified on appeal to include pre-judgment interest. The trial court should have modified the original judgment upward by adding the pre-judgment interest. Pursuant to I.C. § 28-22-104, interest should have been allowed on the modified judgment from the date of the original judgment.
McFADDEN, J., concurs.