A.R.A. SERVICES, INC. AND GROUND SERVICES, INC., APPELLANTS,
v.
PAN AMERICAN WORLD AIRWAYS, INC., A DELAWARE CORPORATION LICENSED TO DO BUSINESS IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA, AS THE SUCCESSOR IN INTEREST TO NATIONAL AIR LINES, INC., A FLORIDA CORPORATION, APPELLEE
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The Third District Court of Appeal affirmed a trial court's award of prejudgment interest in a property damage case arising from negligence. The court applied the Florida Supreme Court's recent holding in Argonaut Insurance Co. v. May Plumbing Co., which established that prejudgment interest is an element of pecuniary damages and may be awarded even where the plaintiff is comparatively negligent, with the accrual date being the date of loss.
Prejudgment interest may be awarded in negligence actions involving property damage even where the plaintiff is comparatively negligent. For purposes of assessing prejudgment interest, a claim becomes liquidated and susceptible to prejudgment interest when a verdict has the effect of fixing damages as of a prior date, which is the date of loss.
[1] Prejudgment interest may be awarded where property damage is caused by an act of negligence, even where the plaintiff is comparatively negligent.
[2] A claim becomes liquidated and susceptible of prejudgment interest when a verdict fixes damages as of a prior date, which is the date of the loss.
Previewing 2 of 3 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“prejudgment interest may be awarded where property damage is caused by an act of negligence, and even where plaintiff is comparatively negligent”
Establishes the core holding that prejudgment interest is recoverable in negligence actions involving property damage regardless of comparative negligence findings.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAn air-conditioning hose owned by defendant Pan American World Airways was sucked into an engine of plaintiff's taxiing DC-10 aircraft, causing over $…
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FERGUSON, Judge.
The main question presented by this appeal was answered by the Florida Supreme Court in the recent case of Argonaut Insurance Co. v. May Plumbing Co., 474 So. 2d 212 (Fla.1985). Reaffirming the Florida position that prejudgment interest is another element of pecuniary damage rather than a penalty, it was held that prejudgment interest may be awarded where property damage is caused by an act of negligence,1 and even where plaintiff is comparatively negligent. Approving of Bergen Brunswig Corp. v. State, Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, 415 So. 2d 765 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982), rev. denied, 426 So. 2d 25 (Fla.1983), the court further ruled, “for the purpose of assessing prejudgment interest, a claim becomes liquidated and susceptible of prejudgment interest when a verdict has the effect of fixing damages as of a prior date.” 474 So. 2d at 214. That date is the date of the loss. Id. at 215. In this case the verdict had the effect of “liquidating” plaintiffs damages as of the date defendant’s air-conditioning hose was sucked into an engine of plaintiff’s taxiing DC-10 aircraft causing over $1,000,000 in damages.2
The remaining issues are without merit.
Affirmed.
. There is a growing trend among the states toward awarding prejudgment interest in tort actions, including those involving personal injury and wrongful death claims. Cf. Zorn v. Britton, 120 Fla. 304, 162 So. 879 (1935) (in Florida prejudgment interest is not recoverable on awards for personal injury). The primary rationale underlying court rules or statutes mandating the award of prejudgment interest is to encourage settlements, recognizing that in most cases there are no real incentives to pretrial disposition of tort actions.
Statutes and case law providing for prejudgment interest vary as to the date interest begins to accrue. The most generous statutes allow for the award of interest from the date the cause of action accrued, which is usually the date of the accident. States which employ the date of loss as the point where prejudgment interest begins to accrue reason that a plaintiff loses the economic value of his money from that date. Other states specify the commencement of an action as the start of accrual. New Jersey combines two categories and allows interest from the date the complaint is filed or six months after the date of loss, whichever is later. Several states tie the commencement of accrual date directly to good faith settlement efforts, i.e., the date a reasonable settlement offer is rejected. Whether a settlement offer was reasonable for the purpose of assessing prejudgment interest depends on the amount of damages awarded after trial. Ross & Goelz, Prejudgment Interest in Tort Suits Sometimes Added, Nat’l L.J., Apr. 29, 1985, at 14, col. 1.
. A jury found plaintiff Pan Am fifty-five percent negligent. Prejudgment interest calculated by the trial judge was fixed at $161,102.57.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
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Getelman v. Burton R. Levey, 481 So. 2d 1236 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985)…t [*1241] utes mandating the award of prejudgment interest is to encourage settlements, recognizing that in most cases there are no real incentives to pretrial disposition of tort actions.” A.R.A. Services, Inc. v. Pan American World Airways, Inc., 474 So. 2d 396, 396-97, n. 1 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985). . But see Patilla v. St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Co., 322 So. 2d 46 (Fla. 1st DCA 1975), cert. denied, 336 So. 2d 603 (Fla.1976) (trial court did not err in declining to award prejudgment interest prior to t…
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Truck & Trailer Sales Corp. & Transp. Indem. Co. v. Carolina Freight Carriers Corp., 500 So. 2d 177 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986)…ch 17, 1981, to the date of final judgment. Accordingly, the judgment is affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded for award of prejudgment interest. SMITH and WENTWORTH, JJ., concur. . A.R.A. Services, Inc. v. Pan Am World Airlines, Inc., 474 So. 2d 396 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985).…
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Overseas Private Inv. Corp. v. Metro. Dade Cnty., 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9823 (S.D. Fla. 1993)…udes that Plaintiffs are not entitled to an award of prejudgment interest. Florida law permits recovery of prejudgment interest on a tort claim generally. 32 *1584 See, e.g., A.R.A. Serv., Inc. v. Pan American World Airways, Inc., 474 So.2d 396 (Fla.App.Ct. 3rd Dist.1985) (“prejudgment interest may be awarded where property damage is caused by an act of negligence ... ”). Section 768.28(5) of the Florida Statutes, however, prohibits the recovery of prejudgment interest on tort judgments ag…
Authorities Cited
- Argonaut Ins. Co. v. MAY Plumbing Co., 474 So. 2d 212 (Fla. 1985)
- Bergen Brunswig Corp. & Health Application Sys., Inc. v. State of Fla. Dep't OF Health & Rehabilitative Servs., 415 So. 2d 765 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982)
- Zorn v. Britton, 120 Fla. 304 (Fla. 1935)