Section 5.16 Postjudgment Interest

• Library: Insurance Practice 2015

Interest on judgments is simple interest unless (1) “justice require[s] compound[ing] [of the] interest to serve the cause of equity” or (2) the contract on which the judgment is based allows for compounding it. Geisner v. Budget Rent A Car of Mo., 999 S.W.2d 265 (Mo. App. E.D. 1999).

Section 408.040.1, RSMo 2000, allows postjudgment interest at nine percent per annum beginning the date the judgment is rendered—not the date on which it becomes final.

A difficult question often raised with respect to these “additional payments” or “additional coverage” sections as they relate to judgment interest is whether the insurer’s obligation ends when the face amounts of the “limits” are tendered or only when those “limits” plus the accrued interest is tendered. The result seems to turn on whether the policy calls for termination of the interest obligation:

· upon the tender of the “limits of liability” (usually held to mean only the stated face amount of the coverage); or

· upon the tender of the “amount of our (the insurer’s) obligation under this policy” or the “amount due under this coverage” (both of which are usually held to include the interest).

See Levin v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 510 S.W.2d 455 (Mo. banc 1974); White v....