No prejudgment interest on medicals, even if admitted
By Jeffrey P. Downer

Medical expenses are not "liquidated" sums on which the court may award prejudgment interest, even if the defense admits that they are reasonable and necessary, the Washington Court of Appeals has held.

In Lakes v. von der Mehden, 117 Wn. App. 212 (2003), Melvin Lakes was injured in an auto accident caused by Paul von der Mehden. Lakes later sued. During discovery, Lakes sent requests for admissions to von der Mehden. Von der Mehden admitted that most of these medical bills, or $7,191, were reasonably necessary. At trial, they admitted $7,307 in medical bills. The jury included those admitted medical expenses in its verdict.

Lakes requested prejudgment interest on the admitted medical expenses. He argued that because those amounts were not disputed, the court had no discretion in awarding them, and they therefore were liquidated. The trial court disagreed, and Lakes appealed.

Division III of the Court of Appeals affirmed. It noted that a claim is liquidated or determinable by computation under a fixed contractual standard that requires no reliance on discretion or opinion. But no prejudgment interest is awarded if the defendant cannot ascertain the amount owed. Here, "by their nature, medical expenses are not liquidated until the judge or jury determines that the expenses were reasonably and necessarily incurred. … Unliquidated claims are not rendered liquidated by the fact that the defendant stipulates to the damages or agrees to the reasonableness of a settlement."