William Cordero v. Juan De Jesus-Mendez, Etc.

922 F.2d 11, 21 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1170, 1990 U.S. App. LEXIS 21856, 1990 WL 205478
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedDecember 18, 1990
Docket90-1364
StatusPublished
Cited by64 cases

This text of 922 F.2d 11 (William Cordero v. Juan De Jesus-Mendez, Etc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
William Cordero v. Juan De Jesus-Mendez, Etc., 922 F.2d 11, 21 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1170, 1990 U.S. App. LEXIS 21856, 1990 WL 205478 (1st Cir. 1990).

Opinions

BOWNES, Senior Circuit Judge.

This is the second appeal in this § 1983 action for the political firing of a number of employees of the Municipality of Moca, in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Pursuant to our decision on the first appeal, the case was remanded for a new trial on damages. Cordero v. De Jesus-Mendez, 867 F.2d 1 (1st Cir.1989). The second trial was held. The issues now before us involve the addition of prejudgment interest by the district court to the jury’s verdicts of compensatory damages, post-judgment interest, attorney’s fees and interest on attorney’s fees.

I. PREJUDGMENT INTEREST

There can be no doubt that in this circuit the decision to award prejudgment interest in a federal question case lies within the sole province and discretion of the jury. Carey v. Bahama Cruise Lines, 864 F.2d 201, 208 n. 6 (1st Cir.1988); Robinson v. Watts Detective Agency, Inc., 685 F.2d 729, 741-42 (1st Cir.1982), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1105, 1204, 103 S.Ct. 728, 1191, 74 L.Ed.2d 953, 75 L.Ed.2d 436 (1983); Furtado v. Bishop, 604 F.2d 80, 98 (1st Cir.1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 1035, 100 S.Ct. 710, 62 L.Ed.2d 672 (1980); Robinson v. Pocahontas, Inc., 477 F.2d 1048, 1052-53 (1st Cir.1973).

We pointed out in Furtado v. Bishop that in an action brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the issue of prejudgment interest is so closely allied with the issue of damages that federal law dictates that the jury should decide whether to assess it. 604 F.2d at 97-98.

As a necessary corollary to this rule we have held that where a plaintiff does not request prejudgment interest from the jury, “[h]e [is] therefore barred from subsequently seeking it from the judge.” Kolb v. Goldring, Inc., 694 F.2d 869, 875 (1st Cir.1982). See also Segal v. Gilbert Color Systems, Inc., 746 F.2d 78, 83-84 (1st Cir.1984).

Plaintiffs do not challenge the governing law. They seek to avoid it on the ground that we have no appellate jurisdiction because of defendants’ failure to file a timely appeal. In order to understand this contention, we must track the paper trail of motions and orders on prejudgment interest. The first motion by plaintiffs for prejudgment interest was filed on October 8, 1986, the day after the judgment was entered after the first trial. Plaintiffs did not request at any time prior to the submission of the case to the jury that the jury be instructed to determine whether to add prejudgment interest to any award of compensatory damages it might return. On October 24, 1986, the court ruled on the motion by stating, “interests are regulated by law, not by Jgmt.” There was no objection by defendants either to the motion or the court’s order. On November 5, plaintiffs moved that the court reconsider its order of October 24. The court did so on March 12, 1987; it granted plaintiffs’ motion for prejudgment interest. No rate or amount was specified. No objection was filed by defendants. Defendants then appealed from the judgments entered after the first trial. The question of prejudgment interest was not raised on appeal by defendants.

Our paper trail continues after the second trial; judgment on the second verdict was entered on April 14, 1989. On August 18, 1989, plaintiffs moved to fix the rate of prejudgment interest. There was no objection by defendants. On September 13, the district court made the following order: “The rate will be computed on the basis of the applicable Dept, of Treasury T. Bill rate Tables effective the date the judgment became final. The disposition uses the post judgment rate as a- proper indicator for prejudgment interest.” No objection was filed by defendants. On February 14, 1990, the court issued an order which stated in pertinent part:

The compensatory-damage award of April 14, 1989 is $307,239.31. The T-Bill interest rate of 9.51% to compute pre and post-judgment interest is correct. The [14]*14use of the entire award sum, from the date the complaint was filed, April 15, 1985, to the date when the deposit of the balance of the compensatory-damage award was made by defendants, May 3, 1989, with a total of $118,634.10 of pre and post-judgment interest, is correct.

On February 23 defendants moved under Fed.R.Civ.P. 59(e)1 to amend the prejudgment interest order on the ground that it was contrary to circuit law. The court denied the motion on March 12, stating: “Be mindful of the fact that we closely followed your own admitted calculations as a bases [sic] for our ruling (letter 'of Jan. 18, 1990), dkt. # 251.” 2

On April 11, 1990, defendants filed a notice of appeal.

Plaintiffs’ contention that we lack appellate jurisdiction on the issue of prejudgment interest is based on a simple premise. The district court granted plaintiffs’ motion for prejudgment interest on March 12, 1987. Defendants neither objected to the court’s order granting the motion nor raised it as an issue on the first appeal. Ergo, the order stands and defendants’ present appeal is time-barred under Fed.R. App.P. 4(a)(1) which requires that the notice of appeal be filed “within 30 days after the date of entry of the judgment or order appealed from.” Plaintiffs, most generously, are willing to construe the Rule 59(e) motion brought on February 23, 1990, objecting to the determination of prejudgment interest as a Rule 60(b) motion. But they insist that even under the one-year period allowed for bringing such a motion, the time for filing had expired because it is March 12, 1987, the date of the order allowing prejudgment interest, that controls.

We reject plaintiffs’ contention for both procedural and substantive reasons. We first point out that because we remanded in the first appeal for a new trial on damages, any prior order on prejudgment interest was wiped out. It was .the second trial on damages that controlled any issues affecting the amount of damages. Secondly, there was no determination of the amount of prejudgment interest until the court order of February 14, 1990.3 Defendants’ Rule 59(e) motion objecting to the prejudgment interest was filed on February 23, within the ten-day requirement of the rule. The order denying the motion was entered on March 12; defendants’ notice of appeal was filed on April 11, within the 30-day appeal period. The appeal was timely filed, and we have jurisdiction to hear it.

The substantive obstacle to an award of prejudgment interest is insurmountable. Plaintiffs did not, in either trial, request that the question of prejudgment interest be submitted to the jury; nor did they ask for a jury instruction on it. Furtado v.

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922 F.2d 11, 21 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1170, 1990 U.S. App. LEXIS 21856, 1990 WL 205478, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/william-cordero-v-juan-de-jesus-mendez-etc-ca1-1990.