The Court of Appeal Time Machine – Interest Calculations on Modified Judgments

If you obtained a judgment against your former client for over $7.7 million, and had the court of appeal knock it down to around $1.7 million, and the trial court entered judgment in that reduced amount 14 months after the date of the original judgment, you would want interest to run on the judgment — even from the reduced amount — from the date of the original judgment, right? Of course you would. After all, 14 months of interest at a simple 10% on the $1.7 million amount is nearly $200,000. That’s not pocket change. (Well, not for me, anyway.)

But in Chodos v. Borman, case no. B260326 (2d Dist. August 18, 2015), the trial court ordered that interest on the judgment was to run only from the date of entry of the later judgment entered after the original appeal. That’s $200,000 up in smoke. Chodos, the judgment creditor, appealed.

And wins. The Court of Appeal points out that whether interest runs from the date of the original judgment or the date of the later judgment depends on whether its disposition in the original appeal amounted to a reversal of the judgment (in which case interest would run from the later judgment only) or merely a modification of the judgment (in which case the interest would run from the date of the original judgment).

Well, that should be an easy question, right? After all, the court knows what it did in the last appeal. But let’s just say it was not obvious to everyone. The trial court got it wrong.

As in many areas of the law, one must look past the form of the Court of Appeal’s prior opinion and identify its substance. The court had phrased its disposition in the prior appeal as a reversal:

The judgment is reversed and the matter is remanded to the trial court with instructions to enter a new judgment based on that portion of the special verdict form that awarded the attorney a $1.8 million lodestar amount based on the jury’s finding of a reasonable hourly rate of $1,000 and a reasonable number of hours expended on the two divorce cases and the Marvin action of 1,800. As it did in the original judgment, the trial court shall make adjustments to the $1.8 million award by adding the amount of $24,921 and deducting the amount of $107,000.

Despite the use of the word “reversed,” however, the disposition was really a mere modification of the judgment. It directed the trial court to enter a judgment in favor of the original prevailing party in a reduced amount, rather than returning the case to theatrical court for any further hearings on the amount of the judgment.

Thus, appellant is able to “return” to the date of the original judgment via the Court of Appeal Time Machine, and watch the interest accrue from that date.