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Mehta v. Baton Rouge Oil Company9/22/2000
The issue before this court arises from a dispute about how the interest on a judgment should be computed. More specifically, the question is whether the phrase "from date of judicial demand" in the judgment relates to the original petition, or to the demand of an amended petition.
FACTS
On August 19, 1987, the plaintiffs, Jagdish Manubhai Mehta, Lucius McCutchen Butts, David Brian Ammons, and Lorraine Ammons, lessors, filed suit against Baton Rouge Oil Company, Inc., M.J. Butch Strother and Vincent A. Morella, lessees, for rentals and late charges due under a written lease between the parties as the result of delinquencies for six months in 1986, and January through May 1987. Additionally, the plaintiffs alleged that the defendants failed to make any rental payments from June through August 1987. The matter came for trial on Thursday, November 12, 1992. During the trial, the plaintiffs attempted to introduce evidence of subsequent delinquencies on rental payments. Counsel for defendants objected and the objection was sustained by the court. Plaintiffs' counsel then orally moved for permission to amend the petition. The motion was granted over the objection of defense counsel. The trial was interrupted and the court gave deadlines for the filing of new pleadings, issued a discovery schedule and then recessed the trial.
On November 24, 1992, plaintiffs filed an "Amended and Supplemental Petition." In this new pleading, the plaintiffs alleged defaults on rental payments beginning in September 1987 and prayed for an acceleration of payments under the lease for the entire ten year period, amounting to a total of $303,485.00. The trial resumed on December 6, 1992, and the court rendered judgment in favor of the plaintiffs in the amount of $32,400.00. In its written reasons, the court explained the basis for this sum as follows: I find that they [plaintiffs] did not sufficiently mitigate their damages to make them entitled to rents past December 31st 1988. For those reasons orally assigned, I grant judgment herein in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendant in the amount of $32,400.00 representing eighteen months at eighteen hundred dollars.
A formal judgment setting forth this ruling was signed on April 21, 1994, and the granting clause of the formal judgment reads as follows:
IT IS ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that there be judgment in favor of plaintiffs, Jagdish Manubhai Mehta, Lucius McCutchen Butts, David Brian Ammons and Lorraine Ammons, and against defendants, Baton Rouge Oil Company, Inc., M.J. Butch Strother, and Vincent A. Morella, insolido, in the full sum of Thirty-Two Thousand and Four Hundred Dollars ($32,400.00) ... together with legal interest thereon from date of judicial demand, reasonable attorney fees to be decided by the court pursuant to a rule and for all costs of these proceedings.
Following the rendition of the April 21, 1994 judgment, the defendant, Vincent A. Morella, began a schedule of periodic and regular payments in order to satisfy the judgment. He did this until, according to his calculations, the judgment was satisfied. Because of the disagreement on how to calculate the interest on the judgment, the plaintiffs did not concur with Morella's calculations. The plaintiffs filed a judgment debtor rule on February 4, 1999. Morella responded by filing a motion for a protective order on March 3, 1999. The motion for a protective order prayed, Defendant submits that plaintiffs are not entitled to a judgment debtor examination because he has paid the judgment in full. In the alternative, should this court find that the judgment has not been paid in full, defendant prays that the court fix the amount of the bal
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