Cugini Capoccia Builders v. Ciminello's, Unpublished Decision (9-19-2006)
Cugini Capoccia Builders v. Ciminello's, Unpublished Decision (9-19-2006)
Opinion of the Court
OPINION
{¶ 1} Plaintiff-appellant, Cugini and Capoccia Builders, Inc. ("appellant"), appeals from the judgment of the Franklin County Municipal Court, which denied appellant's motion for prejudgment interest based on a lack of jurisdiction. For the following reasons, we affirm.{¶ 2} The facts in this case are not in dispute. Appellant, a general contractor, hired defendant-appellee, Ciminello's, Inc. ("appellee"), as a landscaping subcontractor on a home construction project in October 1993. On August 16, 2001, appellant filed a complaint in the trial court, alleging that appellant had overpaid appellee by $11,660. Appellant sought damages in that amount, plus fees, interest, and costs. Appellant alleged claims of conversion and unjust enrichment.
{¶ 3} On August 19, 2002, the trial court issued a judgment in favor of appellant and awarded appellant $2,265, plus postjudgment interest and costs.
{¶ 4} Appellant appealed that judgment to this court. On April 24, 2003, this court issued an opinion that affirmed in part and reversed in part the trial court's decision. Cugini Capoccia Bldrs., Inc. v. Ciminello's, Inc., Franklin App. No. 02AP1-020, 2003-Ohio-2059. This court found that the trial court erred by admitting into evidence inadmissible hearsay, which was the only evidence supporting the trial court's finding that appellee was entitled to $3,750 for performing additional landscaping work. Accordingly, this court found that "the trial court erred by deducting $3,750 from its judgment for appellant." Id. at ¶ 21. The court concluded the opinion as follows:
For the foregoing reasons, we sustain each of appellant's assignments of error in part. The judgment of the Franklin County Municipal Court is affirmed in part and reversed in part, and this case is remanded to the trial court to enter judgment in favor of appellant in accordance with this opinion.
Id. at ¶ 23.
{¶ 5} On June 27, 2003, following remand, the trial court entered judgment on behalf of appellant in the amount of $6,015, plus postjudgment interest and costs.
{¶ 6} On July 9, 2003, appellant filed a motion for an award of prejudgment interest and a request for an oral hearing. Appellant sought interest from December 9, 1994 (the date appellee cashed the final payment check from appellant), through June 9, 2003. According to appellant, the amount of interest owed totaled $8,877.17. In its motion, appellant sought prejudgment interest under both common law and R.C.
{¶ 7} In response, appellee argued that appellant's motion was untimely, as a motion for prejudgment interest under R.C.
{¶ 8} At a hearing before the court on October 14, 2003, appellant argued that it was not seeking prejudgment interest under R.C.
{¶ 9} On November 12, 2003, the trial court issued a decision denying appellant's motion for prejudgment interest. The court found that it lost jurisdiction to decide prejudgment interest when appellant appealed from the August 19, 2002 judgment. The court did not cite to R.C.
{¶ 10} Appellant filed a timely appeal from the trial court's denial of its motion for prejudgment interest. However, on November 4, 2003, this court found that the trial court had never filed a judgment entry confirming its decision to deny appellant's motion for prejudgment interest. Therefore, this court dismissed appellant's appeal sua sponte.
{¶ 11} On February 7, 2006, the trial court issued a final judgment entry, based on the court's November 4, 2003 decision denying appellant's motion for prejudgment interest for lack of jurisdiction.
{¶ 12} Appellant filed a timely notice of appeal and raises a single assignment of error:
THE TRIAL COURT ERRED AS A MATTER OF LAW IN DETERMINING THAT IT DID NOT HAVE JURISDICTION OVER THE ISSUE OF PREJUDGMENT INTEREST.
{¶ 13} In its assignment of error, appellant argues that the trial court had jurisdiction to consider its motion for prejudgment interest because the trial court's June 27, 2003 judgment of $6,015, following remand, was a new judgment upon which appellant could seek prejudgment interest. In response, appellee argues that the trial court lost jurisdiction to decide prejudgment interest when appellant appealed the trial court's August 19, 2002 judgment of $2,265 to this court. Whether the trial court had jurisdiction to hear appellant's motion for prejudgment interest is a question of law, and our review is de novo.
{¶ 14} At the outset, we reiterate that appellant based its motion for prejudgment interest on R.C.
{¶ 15} R.C.
{¶ 16} Former R.C.
Interest on a judgment * * * for the payment of money rendered in a civil action based on tortious conduct and not settled by agreement of the parties, shall be computed from the date the cause of action accrued to the date on which the money is paid if, upon motion of any party to the action, the court determines at a hearing held subsequent to the verdict or decision in the action that the party required to pay the money failed to make a good faith effort to settle the case and that the party to whom the money is to be paid did not fail to make a good faith effort to settle the case.
Page's Ohio Revised Code Annot. (2001 Supp.).
{¶ 17} While R.C.
* * * It therefore seems most reasonable, and we so hold, that a motion for prejudgment interest, pursuant to R.C.
{¶ 18} As for the nature of the hearing required under R.C.
{¶ 19} The party requesting prejudgment interest has the burden of demonstrating that the other party failed to make a good-faith effort to settle the case. Broadstone v. Quillen,
A party has not "failed to make a good faith effort to settle" under R.C.
{¶ 20} In Moskovitz v. Mt. Sinai Med. Ctr. (1994),
{¶ 21} A movant's subjective claims of lack of good faith are generally not sufficient to show a lack of good faith. Id. Rather, it is "incumbent" on a movant to present persuasive evidence of a settlement offer that was reasonable under the circumstances: "the type of case, the injuries involved, applicable law, defenses available, and the nature, scope and frequency of efforts to settle." Id. A trial court also will consider responses or the lack of responses to an offer and/or a "demand substantiated by facts and figures." Id.
{¶ 22} In this case, appellant moved for prejudgment interest beginning on December 9, 1994, the date appellee cashed the last payment check from appellant. Appellant neither attached nor presented in its motion any evidence of any kind concerning settlement offers or rejections. Rather, appellant argued that appellee's obligation to pay prejudgment interest arose from appellee's conversion of funds belonging to appellant. In response, appellee presented evidence that it had made good-faith efforts to settle the case and that appellant had made no effort to settle. In its reply, appellant argued that prejudgment interest based on conversion was a common-law remedy, which did not require appellant to present the good-faith evidence necessary under R.C.
{¶ 23} At the October 14, 2003 hearing, appellant similarly argued that R.C.
* * * We are not taking a position in this case that [appellee's] acts are in bad faith or they failed to negotiate in good faith; that's why we don't believe the section of that statute applies. * * * We agree there were no bad faith settlement negotiations in that case, so that is undisputed as far as the record in this case.
(Tr. at 3.)
{¶ 24} Counsel went on to argue that appellant was entitled to prejudgment interest based on common law, which allows prejudgment interest on judgments arising from a claim of conversion. In any event, counsel argued, appellant's motion was timely because it was filed within 14 days following the June 27, 2003 judgment on remand. As noted, the trial court ultimately denied appellant's motion and did so without reference to R.C.
{¶ 25} Before this court, appellant cites briefly to R.C.
{¶ 26} We turn now to appellant's argument that Ohio common law entitles appellant to prejudgment interest on an award arising from a conversion. Appellee argues that no entitlement to prejudgment interest exists independently of R.C.
{¶ 27} By its terms, R.C.
{¶ 28} Although Ohio common law did not generally allow prejudgment interest in civil actions based on tortious conduct, an action in conversion was a well-established exception. Moorev. Univ. of Cincinnati Hosp. (1990),
{¶ 29} Thus, under common law, the period for computing interest on a conversion claim lies within the discretion of the court; in contrast, under R.C.
{¶ 30} "The primary, if not the sole, purpose of [R.C.
{¶ 31} As applied here, we find that the trial court would have had the discretion to award prejudgment interest as an element of the compensatory damages awarded to appellant as a result of appellee's conversion of the money owed to appellant. We find, however, that the trial court had no jurisdiction to award such additional compensatory damages following this court's remand.
{¶ 32} We agree with appellant that, in general, when an appellate court reverses a judgment and remands the cause for further proceedings, "the lower court is required to proceed from the point at which the error occurred." State ex rel. Stevensonv. Murray (1982),
{¶ 33} Here, this court found only that "the trial court erred by deducting $3,750 from its judgment for appellant."Cugini at ¶ 21. Accordingly, the court "sustain[ed] appellant's second assignment of error, but only to the extent that appellant is entitled to an additional $3,750." Id. at ¶ 22. This court's only directive to the trial court was to "enter judgment in favor of appellant in accordance with this opinion." Id. at ¶ 23. Thus, this court's opinion allowed only a damage award in the amount of $6,015; it did not allow for any new compensatory damages, including damages in the nature of prejudgment interest, to be added, nor did it provide for further proceedings to determine such an award. Any grant of additional compensatory damages would have exceeded the scope of the remand and, therefore, the trial court's jurisdiction. See, e.g., Polster v. Webb,
{¶ 34} In any event, even if this court's limited remand had not foreclosed an award of prejudgment interest under common law, appellant's waiver of the issue would have. Count One of appellant's complaint alleged that appellee's conversion of the $11,660 caused appellant to suffer damages in the amount of $11,660, "accompanied by attorney fees and interest on said sum." In its prayer for relief, appellant sought "judgment against [appellee] in the amount of $11,660.00, accompanied by attorney fees, interest, and costs." The prayer for relief did not seek a specific award for prejudgment interest, nor did the remainder of appellant's complaint expressly seek prejudgment interest. This court has held that the failure to include prejudgment interest in the prayer for relief operates as a waiver of such a claim.Salvi v. Dunbar (Dec. 23, 1993), Franklin App. No. 93AP-1059; GS Mgmt. Co. v. Commercial Union Ins. Cos. (June 3, 1993), Franklin App. No. 92AP-1429.
{¶ 35} Moreover, even if appellant's complaint were sufficient to raise prejudgment interest, there is no evidence in our record indicating that appellant raised the issue of prejudgment interest to the trial court at any other time prior to its July 2003 motion. Nor did appellant argue in its appeal to this court in 2002 that the trial court erred by not awarding prejudgment interest as part of appellant's damages. To confirm this last point, the following exchange occurred at the October 14, 2003 hearing:
THE COURT: * * * There was no appeal on the issue of whether or not the judgment awarded in that case with no prejudgment interest was in error. Am I correct; that was not an assignment of error in the case?
[APPELLANT'S COUNSEL]: It was not an assignment of error.
(Tr. at 5.)
{¶ 36} By not raising the issue of prejudgment interest to the trial court before or immediately after the August 19, 2002 judgment or assigning as error on appeal the trial court's failure to include prejudgment interest as part of the damage award, appellant waived its common-law claim for prejudgment interest. See Hiatt v. Giles, Darke App. No. 1662,
{¶ 37} We acknowledge appellant's argument that it was not seeking prejudgment interest on the August 19, 2002 award of $2,265; rather, it was seeking prejudgment interest on the June 27, 2003 award of $6,015. We find, however, that such an argument misconstrues the purpose of an award of prejudgment interest at common law, i.e., to make the plaintiff whole. As we have noted, under common law, in a conversion action, prejudgment interest is an element of the compensatory damages awarded to a prevailing plaintiff. Appellant offers no reason for not raising prejudgment interest before or immediately after the August 2002 judgment, other than to argue that it believed it was entitled to the full $11,660. But, in order to make a common-law claim for prejudgment interest, appellant knew, by at least August 2002, all it needed to know — the date of the conversion. By failing to raise it, appellant waived the issue.
{¶ 38} For all of these reasons, we overrule appellant's assignment of error. Having overruled appellant's single assignment of error, we affirm the judgment of the Franklin County Municipal Court.
Judgment affirmed.
Klatt, P.J., and Travis, J., concur.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Cugini and Capoccia Builders, Inc. v. Ciminello's, Inc.
- Cited By
- 12 cases
- Status
- Unpublished