MISSION SQUARE, INC., APPELLANT,
v.
O'MALLEY'S, INC. D/B/A O'MALLEY'S BAR AND TAVERN, APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 2001-04-10
No. 1D00-257
BROWNING and LEWIS, JJ., concur.
783 So. 2d 1151 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (2001) Positive Treatment
Cited by 4 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

Mission Square appeals a judgment in favor of O'Malley's for breach of a commercial lease's exclusivity provision. The appellate court affirmed the liability finding but reversed the award of prejudgment interest on future damages, holding that present value calculations already account for interest and adding prejudgment interest would be duplicative.


Holding

Prejudgment interest may not be awarded on the present value of future damages. O'Malley's is entitled to prejudgment interest only on losses that occurred before trial. The court reversed the prejudgment interest award on future damages and remanded for recalculation, but affirmed the liability judgment and the underlying damage award.


Headnotes

[1] A jury's finding of liability in a commercial lease dispute will be affirmed when the landlord fails to raise issues warranting reversal.

[2] Prejudgment interest is generally awarded when a verdict liquidates a claim and fixes it as of a prior date.

Previewing 2 of 6 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Key Quotes

“Present value of future damages in most cases, and certainly in the present case, is determined by expert testimony that provides information concerning a total amount of damages that will be incurred in the future and then provides an appropriate interest rate for discounting those damages to present value.”

Establishes how present value damages are calculated and that the discount rate serves the function of interest.

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

Mission Square leased commercial property to O'Malley's Bar and Tavern under a lease containing an exclusivity clause prohibiting the landlord from le…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
KAHN, J.

KAHN, J.

We have for review a final judgment awarding damages to appellee O’Malley’s, Inc. The dispute arose out of a commercial lease under which appellant Mission Square was the lessor and O’Malley’s was the tenant. We affirm the judgment with the exception of the court’s award of prejudgment interest on future damages.

O’Malley’s lease contained an exclusivity provision that prohibited the landlord from leasing to any other tenants who were in the bar or restaurant business without first obtaining O’Malley’s written consent. The evidence below is undisputed that O’Malley’s did not provide such consent for the tenant in question, Hala Café. None of the issues raised by appellant warrant reversal of the jury’s finding of liability in favor of O’Malley’s. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of liability.

We reverse, however, the court’s award of prejudgment interest on future damages. The jury’s verdict in this case relied upon certain expert testimony to award damages attributable to diminution in the value of O’Malley’s leasehold interest that would occur over many years in the future. The expert calculated the total future damages award and then reduced that amount to present value. In entering final judgment, the trial judge added to the figure representing present value of future damages an amount for prejudgment interest at the statutory rate.

Seeking to affirm this result, appel-lee relies upon cases such as Argonaut Ins. Co. v. May Plumbing Co., 474 So. 2d 212 (Fla.1985) and Underhill Fancy Veal, Inc. v. Padot, 677 So. 2d 1378 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996). In Argonaut, the court noted, “wherever a verdict liquidates a claim and fixes it as of a prior date, interest should follow from that date.” 474 So. 2d at 214 (quoting Sullivan v. McMillan, 37 Fla. 134, 19 So. 340 (1896)). Padot observed that courts recognize two prerequisites to the award of prejudgment interest on damages: (1) out-of-pocket pecuniary loss, and (2) a fixed date of loss. See Padot, 677 So. 2d at 1380.

These general rules do not dictate that future damages, although ascertainable by a jury, are subject to prejudgment interest. Present value of future damages in most cases, and certainly in the present case, is determined by expert testimony that provides information concerning a total amount of damages that will be incurred in the future and then provides an appropriate interest rate for discounting those damages to present value. See Delta Air Lines, Inc. v. Ageloff, 552 So. 2d 1089, 1092-93 (Fla.1989). The assumption, then, is that if a judgment awards the present value of future damages, the successful litigant may invest the amount representing such present value, and thereby obtain in the future an amount equal to the actual loss, as such loss or damage occurs in the future. Because present value actually replaces future losses, and takes into account an interest rate, it would be incongruent to tack onto the present value figure an additional interest rate representing a time prior to the time future losses begin to occur. Accordingly, the law provides that a successful plaintiff is entitled to prejudgment interest “when it is determined that the plaintiff has suffered an actual out-of-pocket loss at some date prior to the entry of judgment.” Alvarado v. Rice, 614 So. 2d 498, 499 (Fla.1993).

In the present case, appellee is entitled to prejudgment interest on those losses that occurred as a result of the breach before the date of trial, but is not entitled to prejudgment interest on the present value of future damages. Accordingly, we REVERSE that portion of the final judgment that awards prejudgment interest on future damages and REMAND this case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. We AFFIRM the balance of the judgment on appeal.

BROWNING and LEWIS, JJ., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Nova Se. Univ. OF the Health Scis., Inc. v. Sharick, 21 So. 3d 41 (Fla. 3d DCA 2009)
    …prejudgment interest should be calculated on each progress payment from the date it would have become due). We also agree that no such interest was proper in this case as to the loss of future earnings. See Mission Square, Inc. v. O’Malley’s, Inc., 783 So. 2d 1151, 1152 (Fla. 1st DCA 2001) (finding that prejudgment interest is not recoverable where a judgment awards the present value of lost future damages, explaining that “[b]ecause present value actually replaces future losses, and takes into account an int…
  • Brough v. Imperial Sterling Ltd., 297 F.3d 1172 (11th Cir. 2002)
    …rt testimony that provides information concerning a total amount of damages that will be incurred in the future and then provides an appropriate interest rate for discounting those damages to present value.” Mission Square, Inc. v. O’Malley’s, Inc., 783 So. 2d 1151, 1152 (Fla. 1st Dist.Ct.App.2001). There is no requirement, however, that a party introduce expert testimony to aid a jury in its determination of present value. Seaboard Coast Line R.R. v. Burdi, 427 So. 2d 1048, 1050 (Fla.3d Dist.Ct.App.1983) (“Ju…

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw