Todd Shipyards Corp. v. Turbine Service, Inc.

574 F. Supp. 53, 1984 A.M.C. 2112, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13525
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Louisiana
DecidedSeptember 22, 1983
DocketCiv. A. Nos. 75-1825, 75-2719
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 574 F. Supp. 53 (Todd Shipyards Corp. v. Turbine Service, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Todd Shipyards Corp. v. Turbine Service, Inc., 574 F. Supp. 53, 1984 A.M.C. 2112, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13525 (E.D. La. 1983).

Opinion

OPINION ON REMAND

CASSIBRY, District Judge:

The holding of this court was affirmed in part, modified in part, reversed in part, and remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with the opinion in Todd Shipyards Corporation v. Turbine Service, Inc., 674 F.2d 401 (5th Cir.1982). This court is instructed to resolve, upon remand, the following issues:

(1) the effect of the holding by the Court of Appeals that the red-letter clause in the Todd Shipyards Corporation (“Todd”) contract limited Todd’s liability for negligence or breach of contract to $300,000;
(2) the effect of the reduction of loss of use damage by the Court of Appeals to the amount of $498,000;
(3) the amount of pre-judgment interest that this court must award;
(4) the amount the damage awards against Travelers Insurance Company (“Travelers”) and Sentry Insurance Company (“Sentry”) must be reduced due to the holding by the Court of Appeals that Travelers and Sentry are not liable for any costs incurred in repairing and replacing the work product of their insureds, including the cost of inspecting, crating, shipping, and reinstalling the LP turbine, 674 F.2d at 423; and
(5) the final determination of damages with respect to all parties considering all of the above adjustments to the original opinion and award.1

Items 1, 2, and 5 concern adjustments and recalculations to be made in the damage awards in accordance with the opinion of the Court of Appeals, but require no new findings of fact or conclusions of law. The results of the recalculations are set forth in the Allocation of Damage Awards table which appears at the conclusion of this opinion.

PRE-JUDGMENT INTEREST

A. The Rate of Interest

In calculating the awards of prejudgment interest, I have employed the current state statutory rates, as set forth in Article 2924 of the Louisiana Civil Code:

The rate of judicial interest resulting from a lawsuit pending or filed during the indicated periods shall be as follows. Prior to September 12, 1980, the rate shall be seven percent per annum. On or after September 12, 1980, until September 11, 1981, the rate shall be ten percent per annum. On or after September 11, 1981, the rate shall be twelve percent per annum.

[56]*56Though perhaps not pellucidly clear, the statute does not apparently intend that the date on which a suit is filed should freeze the rate of interest, or else the “pending” language would be surplusage. Todd has been pending during each of the three periods carved out by the legislature, and I find the most reasonable construction and application of Article 2924 to be the following: the rate of interest shall be seven percent from the date the loss was sustained through September 11, 1980, ten percent from September 12, 1980 through September 10, 1981, and twelve percent from September 11, 1981.

Auto has urged the court to use the prime rate, as evinced by certain commonly accepted interest rate schedules, as the appropriate touchstone in its calculations. The problem with Auto’s position is quite simple: it has introduced no proof that it borrowed any money and incurred these higher costs. See Signal Oil & Gas Co. v. Barge W-701, 654 F.2d 1164, 1177 (5th Cir.1981). In the absence of such proof, I am unpersuaded that nothing short of the prime rate will grant Auto (and other parties) “full and fair” compensation and have determined that Article 2924, which clearly fixes rates of legal interest, should prevail.

B. The Date From Which Pre-Judgment Interest Should Run

The Court of Appeals stated that the award of pre-judgment interest is the rule rather than the exception. This Court was directed to calculate and award prejudgment interest. 674 F.2d at 416. The award of pre-judgment interest is calculated from the date the loss was sustained. Sabine Towing and Transportation Company, Inc., v. Zapata Ugland Drilling, Inc., 553 F.2d 489, 490 (5th Cir.1977); Managua Navigation Co. v. Aktieselskabet Borgestad, 7 F.2d 990, 993 (5th Cir.1925).

The Court of Appeals upheld this court’s finding regarding the total amount of time it would have taken to conduct repairs on the LP turbine to return the turbine to the condition it should have been in on May 25, 1975. The Court of Appeals, however, also found that the vessel was operational only 77.2% of the time, resulting in a loss of use time of 166 days, at the rate of $3,000 per day. 674 F.2d at 414.

Auto, therefore, is to be awarded loss-of-use damages for 77.2% of the 215 days after May 25, 1975. Of course, it is not possible to determine the precise dates upon which the ship in question would have been operable. In the judgment of the court, calculation of pre-judgment interest from a date mid-way through the 215-day period represents a fair compromise. September 10, 1975 is 108 days after May 25, 1975. Thus, pre-judgment interest shall begin to run on September 10, 1975 for the entire amount of loss of use damages of $498,000. The total in this category is $124,184.00 up to November 14, 1978.

Payment of the Siemens bill for the cost of replacement blades and repair expenses occurred on three different dates. Total recovery for that category of damages was set at $221,393.76. Pre-judgment interest is awarded for one-third of that amount ($73,797.92) from September 9, 1975; for another third from September 22, 1975; and for the last third from November 14, 1975. Thus, total pre-judgment interest in this category amounts to $53,872 up to November 14, 1978.

Pre-judgment interest for the agents’ accounts from Hansen & Tidemann, detailed at 467 F.Supp. 1257 at 1310, runs from the following dates on the following amounts:

Date Amount
August 13,1975 $ 7,277.28
September 22,1975 9,270.51
November 18,1975 2,232.44
April 26,1976 102,142.88

The total in this category is $24,657 up to November 14, 1978.

Expenses for the expert surveyor Higgins amounted to $11,292.07. Higgins billed Auto for work on the vessel between June 1975 and February 1976. Pre-judgment interest on that amount begins to run on June 21, 1976. The total in this category is $2,066 up to November 14, 1978.

[57]*57Interest on the master’s account awards is calculated on the following amounts from the following dates:

Date Amount
June 5,1975 $18,500.00
July 9,1975 5,000.00
October 10,1975 5,000.00
February 4,1976 10,500.00
February 26,1976 37,526.72

The total in this category is $17,698 up to November 14, 1978.

Interest on the repatriation and recrewing expenses runs as follows:

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574 F. Supp. 53, 1984 A.M.C. 2112, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13525, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/todd-shipyards-corp-v-turbine-service-inc-laed-1983.