 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Andrus v. Lena3/26/1999
amount of the jury award. We reject his argument because "prejudgment interest should be awarded only as to the past damages." McConkey v. Hart, 930 P.2d 402, 406 (Alaska 1996). Therefore, we calculate prejudgment interest only on the jury's award of $16,397 in past damages, which makes the judgment's value approximately $44,165.
Next, we calculate the amount of the prejudgment interest on the $38,000 offer of judgment. Lena argues that we should calculate prejudgment interest only on the portion of the offer that corresponds to the jury's award of past damages, instead of on the entire amount. He argues that Farnsworth allows the court to view the offer through a "retrospectoscope," and calculate prejudgment interest using "the real numbers as decided by the jury rather than applying prejudgment interest to everything." Using his theory, we would calculate prejudgment interest on the offer based on the percentage of past damages the jury actually awarded.
We reject Lena's argument because it would make the offer indefinite -- neither party would know how much the offer was actually worth until the jury made an award. See Myers v. Snow White Cleaners & Linen Supply, Inc., 770 P.2d 750, 752-53 (Alaska 1989) ("One of the protections afforded by the Civil Rule 68 procedure is that the offer of judgment must be definite. This protection is designed to avoid post-trial litigation concerning the meaning of the offer.") (citing Davis v. Chism, 513 P.2d 475, 481 (Alaska 1973) (internal citation omitted)). Furthermore, Lena's theory is not a plausible reading of the offer, which we interpret as a contract. See Jaso, 923 P.2d at 801. If Andrus had accepted Lena's offer, the parties could only have calculated prejudgment interest on the entire $38,000. Therefore, we will calculate prejudgment interest on the entire amount of the offer, which makes the offer's value approximately $49,970.
When prejudgment interest is properly applied to the entire $38,000 of the offer but only to the past damages portion of the jury award, the offer clearly was not more favorable to Andrus than the jury award. We therefore hold that the court erred in applying the Rule 68 interest penalty.
B. The Superior Court Did Not Abuse Its Discretion by Finding that Lena Was the Prevailing Party.
Andrus argues that the superior court erred by finding that Lena was the prevailing party. She argues that the court should have declared that neither party prevailed in this case because the jury rejected "much of plaintiff's damage claims."
" he prevailing party is the one who prevailed on the main issues." Blumenshine v. Baptiste, 869 P.2d 470, 474 (Alaska 1994). A plaintiff may still prevail even if he or she failed to recover all of the relief sought. See id.; see also Alaska Placer Co. v. Lee, 553 P.2d 54, 62-63 (Alaska 1976) (holding that plaintiffs who sought $73,298, but were only awarded $34,026 after offsets, were the prevailing parties). However, when each party prevails on a main issue, the court retains the discretion to not award any attorney's fees. See Shepherd v. State, Dep't of Fish & Game, 897 P.2d 33, 44 (Alaska 1995) (citing Tobeluk v. Lind, 589 P.2d 873, 877 (Alaska 1979)).
We hold that the superior court did not abuse its discretion by finding that Lena was the prevailing party. The jury, on a special verdict form, found the following issues in Lena's favor: 1) Andrus's negligence was a legal cause of Lena's injuries; 2) Lena's own negligence was not a legal cause of his injuries; and 3) Lena suffered a total of $39,000 in damages as a result of Andrus's negligence. Thus the superior court did not abuse its discretion by finding that Len
Page 1 2 3 4 Alaska Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|