Motion to enter an amended judgment including interest under MCL 600.6013(8)

The court held that the trial court erred by granting plaintiffs’ request for an amended judgment in the amount of $164,965.62 because that amount was based on incorrectly calculated interest. Thus, it reversed and remanded for proper calculation of interest. Defendants argued that the starting date for interest to accrue was the 9/18/18 judgment date. They did “not dispute that under MCL 600.6013(8) interest is calculated from the date the complaint is filed.” Rather, they argued that the original judgment entered in 9/18 “already incorporated prejudgment interest dating back to the filing of the complaint, and that plaintiffs are attempting to ‘double dip’ by seeking to add that same amount to the amended judgment.” The record, however, did not support defendants’ claim that the original judgment included prejudgment interest. In the trial court’s 7/31/18 “order determining legal fees, the court awarded plaintiffs $115,052.00 in attorney fees and $9,725.94 in costs. The combined total of the fees and costs, $124,777.94, was the judgment amount contained in” the 9/18 order. And there was “no mention of interest in either the order determining fees or the order of judgment.” Thus, there was no basis in the record to hold that “plaintiffs have already been awarded prejudgment interest.” But the parties agreed that the trial court incorrectly calculated judgment interest.