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Purcell Construction5/4/2000
the period it may be accepted, (2) delay caused by a defendant, or (3) delay caused by a claimant. Here, the record reflects that Mrs. Welch, the claimant, did not seek to delay the trial, but consistently pursued a speedy resolution of her claim. In contrast, first Purcell and then White filed motions to strike the available visiting judges during succeeding setting periods. The trial court's sole stated ground for denying interest after January 27, 1997 was delay "caused by the crowded nature of the court's docket, for which the defendants were not responsible."
Although statutory provisions give the trial court discretion to deny a claimant prejudgment interest for delay caused by that claimant, nothing authorizes the trial court to deny prejudgment interest because of delay attributed to the court's crowded docket. To the contrary, section 304.108 allows denial of prejudgment interest only for delay caused by the parties. See, e.g., Johnson & Higgins of Texas, Inc. v. Kenneco Energy, Inc., 962 S.W.2d 507, 529 (Tex. 1998) (noting that Section 304's predecessor, with substantially the same language, allowed "tolling accrual of prejudgment interest as to the amount of a settlement offer during its pendency, allowing a trial court the discretion to order accrual or nonaccrual during periods of delay caused by a defendant or a plaintiff") (emphasis added).
These statutory prejudgment interest provisions encourage parties to seek prompt resolution of their disputes; nothing in the statutory language, however, suggests that a court may deprive a plaintiff of the time value of its monetary judgment simply because of a crowded docket. Here, the only party-related delay was caused by Purcell and White, defendants below, who struck available visiting judges upon successive settings. We hold the trial court abused its discretion by denying Mrs. Welch prejudgment interest for delay for which she was not responsible.
Mrs. Welch's cross-point is sustained.
We modify the judgment to award prejudgment interest from the date of filing suit until the day before rendition of judgment and we affirm the judgment as so modified.
Publish. Tex. R. App. P. 47.
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