Fiorentino v. Rio Mar Assoc., LP, 09-2688

Challenge to grant of postjudgment interest from the date of original judgment on remand

Fiorentino v. Rio Mar Assoc., LP, 09-2688, concerned a challenge to the district court's grant of plaintiff's request for postjudgment interest from the date of the original judgment on remand, after granting a hotel's motion to alter the original $1.844 million judgment and reducing the amount it owed to $553,200, in finding that another defendant, a hospital, was 70 percent at fault, in a suit brought by a plaintiff and his wife against a hotel for negligence, arising from a swimming accident at the hotel which rendered the plaintiff a quadriplegic, and against a hospital that treated the plaintiff for medical malpractice (which resulted in a settlement for $1.4 million).

In affirming, the court held that, where the damages that are ultimately awarded are embodied in an original money judgment that is later reduced but that is otherwise unassailable, there is no good reason why the defendant should not be required to compensate plaintiff for her loss of the use of the money embodied in the original judgment from the time that the original judgment issued.  The court also held that the defendant has forfeited its right to raise its alternative arguments by failing to present a timely challenge to the Rule 54(b) judgment in the district court.

Related Link:

• Read the First Circuit's Full Decision in Fiorentino v. Rio Mar Assoc., LP, 09-2688