Disclaimer

The information on this website is presented as a service for our clients and Internet users and is not intended to be legal advice, nor should you consider it as such. Although we welcome your inquiries, please keep in mind that merely contacting us will not establish an attorney-client relationship between us. Consequently, you should not convey any confidential information to us until a formal attorney-client relationship has been established. Please remember that electronic correspondence on the internet is not secure and that you should not include sensitive or confidential information in messages. With that in mind, we look forward to hearing from you.

 Skip to Content

Recent Florida Supreme Court Decision On Prejudgment Interest
September 24, 2010
The Florida Supreme Court recently released a significant decision regarding prejudgment interest. In Bosem, M.D. v. Musa Holdings, Inc., Case No. SC09-1277 (Fla. Sep. 23, 2010), the plaintiff brought a commercial misappropriation claim against the defendant, seeking lost profits damages. The trial court awarded prejudgment interest. The Fourth District reversed, finding that a plaintiff is not entitled to prejudgment interest on an award of lost profits because those damages are speculative and are not a vested property right, and, as such, cannot constitute liquidated damages. The Supreme Court disagreed. The Court noted it has consistently applied the "loss theory" to prejudgment interest, which does not prescribe to the traditional liquidated versus unliquidated damages distinction. Instead, the "loss theory" provides that a plaintiff who suffers a pecuniary or tangible loss should be made whole from the date of the loss. As such, the Court held that a plaintiff who suffers pecuniary losses, including lost profits, is entitled to an award of prejudgment interest as a matter of right as soon as the verdict has the effect of fixing the damages. Though the Court believed the issue in this case to be clear under its precedent, its decision allowing prejudgment interest on lost profits damages as a matter of right appears to be contrary to how many practitioners and courts have been viewing prejudgment interest in recent lost profit/breach of contract cases. 
Related Practices
Appellate & Trial Support
©2024 Carlton Fields, P.A. Carlton Fields practices law in California through Carlton Fields, LLP. Carlton Fields publications should not be construed as legal advice on any specific facts or circumstances. The contents are intended for general information and educational purposes only, and should not be relied on as if it were advice about a particular fact situation. The distribution of this publication is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship with Carlton Fields. This publication may not be quoted or referred to in any other publication or proceeding without the prior written consent of the firm, to be given or withheld at our discretion. To request reprint permission for any of our publications, please use our Contact Us form via the link below. The views set forth herein are the personal views of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the firm. This site may contain hypertext links to information created and maintained by other entities. Carlton Fields does not control or guarantee the accuracy or completeness of this outside information, nor is the inclusion of a link to be intended as an endorsement of those outside sites.