Brown v. Flowe, No. 110PA98.

• Docket Nº: No. 110PA98.
• Citation: 507 S.E.2d 894
• Case Date: December 31, 1998
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of North Carolina

507 S.E.2d 894

Vickie Ann BROWN, Administratrix of the Estate for Mary Louise Brown
v.
Kenneth Michael FLOWE, M.D

No. 110PA98.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

December 31, 1998.

507 S.E.2d 895

Faison & Gillespie by O. William Faison and John W. Jensen, Durham, for plaintiff-appellant

Walker, Barwick, Clark & Allen, L.L.P. by Thomas E. Barwick, Goldsboro, for defendant-appellee.

WHICHARD, Justice.

This appeal arises from a medical malpractice action brought by Vickie Ann Brown, administratrix of the estate of Mary Louise Brown, against defendant Dr. Kenneth Flowe, a Pitt County Memorial Hospital emergency-room physician. Defendant and a medical resident performed surgery on the decedent, Mary Louise Brown, at Pitt County Memorial Hospital. Brown died while undergoing the surgery. Prior to filing suit, plaintiff entered a settlement agreement with the medical resident and the hospital, releasing them from liability in consideration of the payment of $178,486.76. On 15 July 1994 plaintiff filed the present action against defendant. The matter was tried before a jury at the 12 August 1996 Civil Session of Superior Court, Pitt County, and the jury returned a verdict finding defendant negligent and awarding compensatory damages in the amount of $250,000. Pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 24-5(b), the trial court applied prejudgment interest at the legal rate of eight percent to the jury's verdict, resulting in a compensatory damages award of $293,013.70. A portion of the award, $71,513.24, was to bear post-judgment interest as well. The trial court allowed plaintiff's motion to tax costs to defendant in the amount of $42,104.44. Aggregating these numbers, the court entered a judgment in the amount of $335,115.14, to which it credited the settlement amount of $178,486.76. The trial court then ordered defendant to pay plaintiff $156,628.38.

Defendant appealed, assigning error, inter alia, to this method of calculating prejudgment interest. The Court of Appeals agreed with defendant and held that "the trial court erred in awarding plaintiff prejudgment interest on the full amount of the verdict, and we remand the case for prejudgment interest to be assessed after applying a credit in the amount of the $178,486.76 settlement to the verdict." Brown v. Flowe, 128 N.C.App. 668, 674, 496 S.E.2d 830, 834 (1998). On 8 July 1998 this Court allowed plaintiff's petition for discretionary review. The question presented is how to reduce a claim against a nonsettling tort-feasor under N.C.G.S. § 1B-4 when prejudgment interest under N.C.G.S. § 24-5(b) applies.

Two statutes interact in this situation. First, N.C.G.S. § 24-5(b) provides:

(b) Other Actions.—In an action other than contract, the portion of money judgment designated by the fact finder as compensatory damages bears interest from the date the action is instituted until the judgment is satisfied. Interest on an award in an action other than contract shall be at the legal rate.

N.C.G.S. § 24-5(b) (1991) (emphasis added). Second, N.C.G.S. § 1B-4 provides, in pertinent part:

[A] release or a covenant not to sue ... given in good faith to one of two or more persons liable in tort for the same injury or the same wrongful death:

(1) ... reduces the claim against the others to the extent of any amount stipulated by the release or the covenant, or in the amount of the consideration paid for it, whichever is the greater; and,

(2) It discharges the tort-feasor to whom it is given from all liability for contribution to any other tort-feasor.

N.C.G.S. § 1B-4 (1983) (emphasis added).

"Legislative intent controls the meaning of a statute." Shelton v. Morehead Mem'l Hosp., 318 N.C. 76, 81, 347 S.E.2d 824, 828 (1986). To determine legislative intent, a court must analyze the statute as a whole, considering the chosen words themselves, the spirit of the act, and the objectives the statute seeks to accomplish. See id. at 81-82, 347 S.E.2d at 828. First among these considerations, however, is the plain meaning of the words chosen by the legislature;

507 S.E.2d 896

if they are clear and unambiguous within the context of the statute, they are to be given their plain and ordinary meanings. Hyler v. GTE Prods. Co., 333 N.C. 258, 262, 425 S.E.2d 698, 701 (1993). The Court's analysis therefore properly begins with the words themselves. Correll v. Division of Soc. Servs., 332 N.C. 141, 144, 418 S.E.2d 232, 235 (1992)

This Court previously has determined "judgment" to be unambiguous and has given that word its plain meaning when interpreting N.C.G.S. § 97-10.2 and Rule 68 of the North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure. We held that "judgment" indicates the final amount of money due to the plaintiff, consisting of the verdict, costs, fees, and interest. See Hieb v. Lowery, 344 N.C. 403, 410, 474 S.E.2d 323, 327 (1996); Poole v. Miller, 342 N.C. 349, 352-53, 464 S.E.2d 409, 411 (1995). A judgment is rendered by the court and is therefore a judicial act, in contrast to a verdict that is rendered by a jury. Hieb, 344 N.C. at 410, 474 S.E.2d at 327; Poole, 342 N.C. at 352, 464 S.E.2d at 411. Therefore, the judgment was the final verdict, $250,000, plus costs, fees, and interest, for a total of $335,115.14.

Under section 24-5, the "portion of money judgment designated by the fact finder as compensatory damages bears interest." N.C.G.S. § 24-5(b). The jury found $250,000 to be "damages ... the estate of Mary Louise Brown, Vickie Brown, Administratrix, [was] entitled to recover by reason of the injury to and death of Mary Louise Brown." Therefore, the trial court properly calculated interest, from the date the action was instituted, on $250,000, the portion of the judgment which the jury found to be compensatory damages. There is no indication in the statute that the compensatory portion minus settlements bears interest; rather, the statute says simply that the "compensatory damages" portion of the judgment bears interest. Id. The statutory language is clear, and this Court therefore must not engage in judicial construction. Poole, 342 N.C. at 351, 464 S.E.2d at 410.

We must, though, determine the application of section 1B-4 to section 24-5. The release at issue was executed before this suit was filed. The hospital and the surgical resident paid $178,486.76 to plaintiff in return for being released from liability for plaintiff's decedent's injury and death. This release "reduces the...