Logue v. Potts Manufacturing Co.

4 Pa. D. & C.2d 143, 1955 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 155
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Cumberland County
DecidedJuly 8, 1955
Docketno. 401
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 4 Pa. D. & C.2d 143 (Logue v. Potts Manufacturing Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Cumberland County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Logue v. Potts Manufacturing Co., 4 Pa. D. & C.2d 143, 1955 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 155 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1955).

Opinion

Garber, J.,

On December 16, 1953, a jury returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff and against defendants in the sum of $8,422 in an action to recover for damages sustained in an automobile accident. Defendants moved for a new trial, alleging trial errors and excessiveness of the verdict. After argument this motion was dismissed and a subsequent motion for rearguments was denied on May 24, 1954.

Defendants appealed to the Supreme Court and included the alleged trial errors and the excessiveness of the verdict as questions to be argued, and did in fact argue both of these questions on appeal.

The Supreme Court, in an opinion dated March 21, 1955, written by Justice Allen M. Stearne (381 Pa. 144), found no trial errors, but did reduce the verdict from $8,422 to $6,422, the order being as follows:

“We therefore reduce this amount [the special damages] to $5,029 and affirm the judgment in the sum of $6,422. The judgment, as modified, is affirmed.”

Thereupon the parties both filed their bills of costs, plaintiff’s being in the sum of $60.07, including a printing cost of $57.07. Defendants’ bill included a printing cost of $421.54, and totaled $441.54. Each party excepted to the other’s bill of costs, claiming liability on the adverse party, but neither objected to the amounts or items of costs.

On March 29, 1955, defendants tendered to plaintiff the sum of $6,422, which tender was refused because it did not include interest.

[145]*145Thereafter defendants presented to the court their petition to permit payment of the amount of the verdict into court, and for a rule to show cause why judgment entered on the verdict should not be satisfied. By agreement between counsel for plaintiff and defendants, defendants were granted leave on April 12, 1955, to-pay into court the sum of $6,422. $6,000 thereof to be paid over to plaintiff forthwith, and the balance to be retained by the prothonotary pending further order of court. Two questions have thus been raised and are now before us for determination. The first of these is as to the amount of interest defendants shall be required to pay. The second is the respective liability of the parties for costs on appeal, particularly including costs of printing paper books.

At the trial defendants admitted liability and agreed that special damages sustained by plaintiff amounted to $1,393. They now admit that they owe interest on this sum from the date of *the verdict to March 29, 1955. They also admit that they owe interest on the remainder of the judgment, as reduced by .the Supreme Court, from March 21, 1955, the date of the order of the Supreme Court, to March 29, 1955, the date of the tender.

At common law a plaintiff could have execution only for the amount of the judgment without interest, and in order to recover interest, was required to resort to a new action, Stewart v. Peterson’s Executors, 63 Pa. 230. Our Act of 1700, 1 Smith’s Laws 7, sec. 2, 12 PS §782, changed this rule and provided that “lawful interest shall be allowed to the creditor for the sum or value he obtained judgment for, from the time the' said judgment was obtained till the time of sale, or till satisfaction be made”.

Since that time interest has been regarded as a legal incident of every judgment and, “as distinctly a substantive part of the debt as if the obligation to pay it [146]*146was founded on a contract for interest,” Watson v. McManus 223 Pa. 583, 588. The Act of April 6, 1859, P. L. 381, sec. 1, 12 PS §781, changed the law only to the extent of allowing interest from the date of the verdict, as distinguished from the date of the entry of judgment as provided by the Act of 1700.

Defendants argue that since they were correct in asserting that the verdict was excessive, as established by the order of the Supreme Court reducing it from $8,422 to $6,422, it would be unjust to charge them interest. They argue that they could not pay their debt to plaintiff because they did not know how much was owed to him until this amount was fixed on appeal.

On the other hand, the harms for which plaintiff has recovered in this action were sustained at the time of the accident. His claim for damages arose at that moment, and it was then that he became entitled to a recovery against the defendants. But in cases sounding in tort, or for unliquidated damages, interest does not run until the amount is fixed by the verdict: Carbondale City School District v. Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland, 346 Pa. 491. When the amount is so fixed, it is legal compensation for all harms sustained ; past, present and future. Plaintiff has his verdict as compensation for his harms, and he is entitled to immediate payment. If not so paid, he is entitled to interest: Troetschel et ux. v. Pa. Turnpike Commission, 42 D. & C. 593; Commonwealth of Pa. v. Stephens et al., 114 Pa. Superior Ct. 126.

Defendants argue that because they admitted liability at the trial plaintiff was legally certain to recover some verdict, and the only real question on appeal was the amount thereof. They made no admission on the record of an amount due plaintiff, nor did they make him a tender of any such sum. They appealed, and left plaintiff wholly without the compensation for his harms to which the jury had found him entitled.

[147]*147At the time the appeal was taken plaintiff had his judgment on his verdict, together with interest thereon as a natural incident thereof. The Supreme Court did not take this judgment from plaintiff, but simply modified it by reducing its amount, and affirmed it as reduced. The situation of the parties is precisely the same as though the verdict had been for this reduced sum. That sum has now been fixed as legal compensation for plaintiff’s harms, measured as of the date of the jury’s verdict, and bearing interest from that date. There is nothing in the opinion or order of the Supreme Court indicating any contrary intent. The interest involved amounts to about $500. If we sustained defendants’ position, we would be further reducing plaintiff’s verdict by this amount. To deny plaintiff interest on the reduced verdict would be to penalize him because the jury thought too well of his case against defendants.

Defendants complain of the injustice of requiring them to pay interest on a debt which they could not pay because the amount thereof was unknown until it was finally fixed by the appellate court. They could have relieved themselves of this difficulty had they desired to do so. They could have paid to plaintiff the special damages on which they now admit they owe interest, together with their own estimate of a sum which would amount to just compensation for the general damages sustained by plaintiff in this accident.

“It seems to have been long understood that where it is the duty of the debtor to pay the sum he owes, and the creditor demands a greater sum, the debtor can only relieve himself from liability by tendering payment of the debt. A bona fide dispute as to the amount of indebtedness is no bar to the accruing of interest. If a tender of payment falls short of the sum found due at the time of the tender, interest runs on the whole”: Dougherty v. Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company, 58 Pa. Superior Ct. 574, 575.

[148]*148Accordingly, we are of the opinion that plaintiff is entitled to interest on the sum of $6,422 from December 16, 1953, to March 29, 1955.

Which party is entitled to recover costs on appeal?

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211 A.2d 28 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1965)

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Bluebook (online)
4 Pa. D. & C.2d 143, 1955 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 155, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/logue-v-potts-manufacturing-co-pactcomplcumber-1955.