Reaves v. Ole Man River Towing, Inc.
Decision Date | 03 June 1985 |
Docket Number | No. 84-4534,84-4534 |
Citation | 761 F.2d 1111 |
Parties | Michael R. REAVES, Plaintiff-Appellant, Cross-Appellee, v. OLE MAN RIVER TOWING, INC., Defendant-Appellee, Cross-Appellant. Summary Calendar. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Neblett, Beard & Arsenault, Richard W. Beard, Alexandria, La., for plaintiff-appellant, cross-appellee.
Ernest Lane, III, Greenville, Miss., for defendant-appellee, cross-appellant.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.
Before WILLIAMS, JOLLY and HILL, Circuit Judges.
In separate decisions, one before and the other after an appeal to and remand from this Court, the district court ordered appellee Ole Man River Towing, Inc., to pay post-judgment interest from the "date of judgment" to appellant Michael R. Reaves with respect to his Jones Act and general maritime claims for future loss of wages. Our intervening decision, which upheld the finding of liability but remanded for recalculation of one element of Reaves's damages, did not mention interest. Reaves now contends that the district court's second judgment should have awarded him interest running from the date of the initial judgment rather than running only from the period after the post-remand decision. Ole Man River counters that Fed.R.App.P. 37, which requires courts of appeals to provide instructions in their mandates "with respect to the allowance of interest," bars the recovery that Reaves seeks. We hold that the district court acted properly but amend our mandate to allow interest from the date of the district court's first decision and remand for computation of the amount.
Two issues require our attention before we reach the merits of Reaves's post-judgment interest claim. The first concerns the propriety of the district court's refusal to antedate its award to the date of its original decision. We find nothing wrong in the court's action. Long-standing precedent establishes that a district court possesses no authority upon remand to calculate post-judgment interest from a date before its post-remand decision unless the mandate of the court of appeals directs otherwise. E.g., Briggs v. Pennsylvania Railroad Co., 334 U.S. 304, 306, 68 S.Ct. 1039, 1040, 92 L.Ed. 1403 (1948); Reeves v. International Telephone & Telegraph, 705 F.2d 750, 751 (5th Cir.1983) (per curiam); Gele v. Wilson, 616 F.2d 146, 149 (5th Cir.1980); cf. Fed.R.App.P. 37 advisory committee note ("a reminder" of the Briggs decision). second sentence of rule as Since our mandate said nothing about interest, the district court acted properly.
The second question we must resolve preliminarily touches upon our power to address the merits of Reaves's claim. Ole Man River argues that Briggs, Gele, and Fed.R.App.P. 37, require a party such as Reaves to petition this Court for a rehearing to seek reformation of its mandate before he may assert that the district court should have computed interest from a date earlier than the post-remand judgment. Although Ole Man River thus invokes the proper practice under Fed.R.App.P. 40(a), the rule must give way if necessary to avoid an unjust result. See 5th Cir.R. 41.2 ( ). As we indicated in Reeves, the matter does not involve a question of power but of whether the circumstances warrant deviation from the rehearing procedure where this court's mandate failed to specify what post-judgment interest to allow:
Our mandate was deficient in this respect. There is no reason why the successful plaintiff should be denied interest on the amounts due him after these were decreed payable by the judgment. If we now merely affirmed the action of the district court and enforced our mandate as originally written, we would commit the injustice of denying interest when interest is due.
Reeves, 705 F.2d at 752; accord City of Detroit v. Grinnell Corp., 575 F.2d 1009, 1010 (2d Cir.1978) ( ); cf. National Surety v. Charles Carter & Co., 621 F.2d 739, 741-42 (5th Cir.1980) (per curiam) ( ); Fed.R.App.P. 37 advisory committee note (citing procedure for recalling mandate as remedy for omission regarding interest).
We believe this case presents a situation that justifies our intervention. As we determine below, 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1961 (1982) entitles Reaves to recover post-judgment interest from the date of the district court's first judgment. Almost four years have passed since that decision, and some $50,000 in interest has accumulated in the interim. See Reeves, 705 F.2d at 752 ( ). Moreover, Reaves has diligently sought correction of the oversight, promptly (although mistakenly) requesting the district court to amend its post-remand judgment to allow additional interest. We modify our mandate, therefore, to permit interest on the full award from the date of the original district court judgment.
We may now briefly dispose of the merits. Under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1961 (1982), "[i]nterest shall be allowed on any money judgment in a...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
Guam Society of Obstetricians & Gynecologists v. Ada
...F.2d 149, 154 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 486 U.S. 1059, 100 L. Ed. 2d 931, 108 S. Ct. 2831 (1988); see also Reaves v. Ole Man River Towing, Inc., 761 F.2d 1111, 1112 (5th Cir. 1985) ("Unless the mandate of the appellate court alters the original judgment in more than relatively minor respect......
-
Graefenhain v. Pabst Brewing Co.
...in more than relatively minor respects, interest should attach from the date of the pre-appeal judgment." Reaves v. Ole Man River Towing, Inc., 761 F.2d 1111, 1113 (5th Cir.1985). Since our prior opinion reinstated the jury's verdict, this rule should apply to the present case. Compare Meri......
-
Bailey v. Chattem, Inc.
...however, that either Briggs or Gele controls our power to modify the application of interest to a judgment. See Reaves v. Ole Man River Towing, Inc., 761 F.2d 1111 (5th Cir.1985) (distinguishing Briggs and Gele Bailey correctly notes that the August 3, 1982 mandate of this Court was appropr......
-
Leroy v. City of Houston
...Co., Inc., 621 F.2d 739 (5th Cir.1980); Reeves v. International Tel. & Tel. Corp., 705 F.2d 750 (5th Cir.1983); Reaves v. Ole Man River Towing Inc., 761 F.2d 1111 (5th Cir.1985); In re Incident Aboard the D/B Ocean King, 877 F.2d 322 (5th Cir.1989). 8 This is further made plain by the Notes......