Judgment and prejudgment interest calculations in cases involving multiple parties, including settling parties, can be tricky business. A calculation error can cost parties money or even justify an appeal. Recently, the Texarkana Court of Appeals issued an opinion that, together with the appellant’s brief, illustrates how to calculate the amount of a claimant’s recovery in cases subject to Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code Chapter 33. The documents also illustrate how to calculate prejudgment interest when the claimant settles with some of the defendants before trial. The opinion and the Brief are important because there are few publicly-available court documents that illustrate these calculations in detail.
This article walks the reader through these calculations step-by-step, with enough detail to enable the reader to re-program the calculations in an Excel spreadsheet. Variations of the base case explain the calculations under slightly different assumptions to illustrate different outcomes. The article merely assumes that the reader is familiar with Chapter 33’s general framework of proportionate responsibility attribution.
To read the full article, click on the PDF linked below.
Calculating-Interest-in-Proportionate-Responsibility-Cases.PDF
Originally written for and published by the Construction Law Section of the State Bar of Texas, Volume 13, No. 2, Summer 2017.