Colodonato v. Consolidated Rail Corp.

• Decision Date: 30 December 1983
• Docket Number: No. 52,52
• Citation: 504 Pa. 80,470 A.2d 475
• Parties: Pauline COLODONATO and James Colodonato, Appellants, v. CONSOLIDATED RAIL CORPORATION, Appellee. E.D. 1983.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Page 475

470 A.2d 475

504 Pa. 80

Pauline COLODONATO and James Colodonato, Appellants, v. CONSOLIDATED RAIL CORPORATION, Appellee.

No. 52 E.D. 1983.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued Nov. 29, 1983.

Decided Dec. 30, 1983.

[504 Pa. 81] Henry B. Fitzpatrick, Jr., Philadelphia, for appellants.

George J. McConchie, Media, for appellee.

Before ROBERTS, C.J., and NIX, LARSEN, FLAHERTY, McDERMOTT, HUTCHINSON and ZAPPALA, JJ.

OPINION

NIX, Justice.

The question presented in this appeal is whether the amount of punitive damages awarded in an action seeking monetary relief for bodily injury, death or property damage is to be included in the basis of the computation of damages for delay pursuant to Pa.R.C.P. 238. The majority of a Superior Court panel, reversing the trial court, held that punitive damages must be excluded from the computation of delay damages. For the reasons which follow we affirm the order of the Superior Court, Pa.Super., 453 A.2d 987.

I.

Appellants Pauline and James Colodonato brought a trespass action against appellee Consolidated Railway Corporation ("Conrail") in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas following the assault and rape of Mrs. Colodonato in the subbasement area of Conrail's Suburban Station in Philadelphia on June 23, 1976. Conrail made no substantial settlement offer, and the case proceeded to trial. The jury awarded Mrs. Colodonato $250,000 in compensatory and $500,000 in punitive damages. That verdict was subsequently molded by the trial court to include delay damages of $115,208.29, representing ten percent annual interest on the total award of $750,000 for the period from October 16, 1979 to April 29, 1981. ¹ As a result, two-thirds of the delay damages assessed, or $76,805.53, consisted of interest on the jury's punitive damage award. Conrail appealed to the Superior Court, which ordered a remittitur of the portion of the judgment representing delay damages on the award for punitive damages. This Court granted the Colodonatos' petition for allowance of appeal.

II

The decision in this matter turns on the interpretation of Pa.R.C.P. 238, a rule promulgated by this Court in 1978. We are guided in our construction of the rule by Rule 127 of our Rules of Civil Procedure, which provides in pertinent part:

(b) Every rule shall be construed, if possible, to give effect to all its provisions. When the words of a rule are clear and free from all ambiguity, the letter of it is not to be disregarded under the pretext of pursuing its spirit.

(c) When the words of a rule are not explicit, the intention of the Supreme Court may be ascertained by considering, among other matters (1) the occasion and necessity for the rule; (2) the circumstances under which it was promulgated; (3) the mischief to be remedied; (4) the object to be attained; (5) the prior practice, if any, including other rules and Acts of Assembly upon the same or similar subjects; (6) the consequences of a particular interpretation; (7) the contemporaneous history of the rule; and (8) the practice followed under the rule.

Pa.R.C.P. 127 (emphasis supplied).

In accordance with Rule 127, we shall examine the language of the rule at issue to determine whether it explicitly controls the question before us. We need engage in further interpretation only if we conclude Rule 238 is unclear or ambiguous. In determining whether ambiguity is present in the first instance, we are required to interpret the words of Rule 238 in accordance with well-established canons of construction. "Words and phrases shall be construed according to rules of grammar and according to their common and approved usage...." Pa.R.C.P. 103; 1 Pa.C.S. § 1903. This Court's intent in formulating the Rule is controlling. Pa.R.C.P. 127(a). It must be presumed that we did not intend "a result that is absurd, impossible of execution or unreasonable," Pa.R.C.P. 128(a), and that we intended "the entire rule ... to be effective and certain." Pa.R.C.P. 128(b). If possible each word "is to be given meaning and not to be treated as surplusage." Matter of Employees of Student Services, Inc., 495 Pa. 42, 52, 432 A.2d 189, 195 (1981).

Pa.R.C.P. 238 applies only to actions to recover damages for death, personal injury and/or property damage. Rule 238 provides in pertinent part:

(a) Except as provided in subdivision (e), in an action seeking monetary relief for bodily injury, death or property damage, or any combination thereof, the court or the arbitrators appointed under the Arbitration Act of June 16, 1836, P.L. 715, as amended, 5 P.S. § 30 et seq., or the Health Care Services Malpractice Act of October 15, 1975, P.L. 390, 40 P.S. § 1301.101 et seq., shall

(1) add to the amount of compensatory damages in the award of the arbitrators, in the verdict of a jury, or in the court's decision in a nonjury trial, damages for delay at ten (10) percent per annum, not compounded, which shall become part of the award, verdict or decision;

* * *

* * *

(e) If a defendant at any time prior to trial makes a written offer of settlement in a specified sum with prompt cash payment to the plaintiff, and continues that offer in effect until commencement of trial, but the offer is not accepted and the plaintiff does not recover by award, verdict or decision, exclusive of damages for delay, more than 125 percent of the offer, the court or the arbitrators shall not award damages for delay for the period after the date the offer was made.

Pa.R.C.P. 238 (emphasis supplied).

The language of section (a)(1) of the rule makes it clear that the delay damage provision therein specifically relates to that portion of an award, verdict or decision (hereinafter "award") which comprises compensatory damages. That section provides for the augmentation of the amount of compensatory damages by the addition of damages for delay through a simple computation. Section (a)(1) instructs "the court or the arbitrators" (hereinafter "court") to add "damages for delay at ten (10) percent per annum, not compounded" to "the amount of compensatory damages" already awarded. Proper grammatical construction would require that the phrase "ten (10) percent per annum" can only refer back to "the amount of compensatory damages," the award which the rule is explicitly intended to affect. Since Rule 238 provides for an increase in the amount of compensatory damages through the use of a percentage formula, common usage indicates that the increase intended is a percentage of the compensatory damage award. Thus, the enhancement of the amount of compensatory damages mandated by Rule 238 is accomplished by simply multiplying that figure by ten percent for each year of "delay" or portion thereof. ² Restated, the damage for delay is to be computed in the form of simple interest on the amount of compensatory damages at an annual rate of ten percent.

Appellants stress this Court's use of the phrase "add to" as opposed to the use of a phrase such as "to be computed upon" and attempt to infer a meaning that the ten percent is to merely be added to the compensatory damages. Such a construction leaves a vacua in the rule in that, under that interpretation, the rule does not provide the basis for the computation of the delay damages. The critical question is the method for computing the delay damages.

Moreover, that interpretation of section (a)(1) would rob the phrase "to the amount of compensatory damages" of any meaningful operative effect. It is immaterial onto which element of the award the delay damages, once computed, is tacked because the ultimate concern is the total award. Such a distortion of the plain meaning offends the basic tenets of the canons of construction.

Nothing in section (a)(1) of that Rule offers any indication that damages other than compensatory damages are to be increased or to be considered in computing the increase in compensatory damages. To the contrary, section (a)(1)'s explicit reference to "compensatory damages" and its corresponding silence as to all other damages assessed by the court prior to the award of delay damages reflects (1) an acknowledgement of the possibility of other components, such as punitive damages, in an award made in the types of actions covered by Rule 238, and (2) a conscious intent to exclude such non-compensatory amounts from the operation of the Rule. ³ Thus we are satisfied that the clear and unambiguous language of Rule 238 expressly precludes delay damages from being computed upon punitive damages. ⁴

III.

Moreover, even if we had accepted appellants' position that the language of Rule 238 was ambiguous, we would nonetheless be forced to resolve the ambiguity by finding that delay damages are not to be computed upon punitive damages. The exclusion of punitive damages from the computation of delay damages is consistent with the purposes of Rule 238. In addition, the inclusion of punitive damages would be offensive to the fairness that rule seeks to ensure. Rule 238 "serves to compensate the plaintiff for the inability to utilize funds rightfully due him...." Laudenberger v. Port Authority of Allegheny County, 496 Pa. 52, 59, 436 A.2d 147, 151 (1981), cert. denied sub nom. Bucheit v. Laudenberger, 456 U.S. 940, 102 S.Ct. 2002, 72 L.Ed.2d 462 (1982). Rule 238 provides compensation to a plaintiff for delay in receiving the monetary damages owing as a result of a defendant's tort. This serves to indemnify the plaintiff for the money he would have earned on his award if he had promptly received it....

...Although the award for delay of time may be "in the nature of interest," in reality, it is merely an extension of the compensatory damages necessary to make a plaintiff whole.

Id. 496 Pa. at 65-66, 436 A.2d at 154 (emphasis supplied).

Compensatory damages are "damages awarded to a person as compensation, indemnity or restitution for harm sustained by him." Restatement (Second) of Torts, § 903 (1979). In contrast, punitive damages are "awarded against a person...