NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A320
SPONSOR: Cruz TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the civil practice law and rules, in relation to inter-
est to be recovered upon a sum awarded in certain circumstances
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To bring actions for personal injury in line with other actions for
purposes of computation of interest on a judgment
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section one amends the CPLR to require the calculation of interest in
cases for personal injury to be measured from the date the cause of
action existed. Sets the date from which interest due on judgments
affecting bodily injury to be the date of injury.
Section two is the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
This legislation would amend the CPLR to require interest on judgments
for personal injury to be measured from the date the harm occurred.
Calculating interest from such a date will result in a more equitable
outcome for those who bring an action that is decided in their favor,
often after waiting years for resolution of the matter.
The inequity in the law has a particularly pernicious effect in personal
injury cases. Under current law, a plaintiff who sues for breach of
contract, for example, receives interest from the date of the breach of
contract. However, an individual who sues for negligence causing a
broken limb recovers interest only from the date of the judgment. This
is especially unfair when one considers that lost earnings, medical
bills, and other losses are expenses that the victim incurs immediately.
Allowing interest to accrue only after the judgment for personal injury
only compounds the injury and can make it impossible for the plaintiff
to be made whole.
Breach of contract, real property, and wrongful death claims already
require judgment to be calculated from the date the cause of action
exists. It is inequitable and unfair to injured victims to treat actions
for personal injury any different.
If a plaintiff is successful in an action for personal injury, it is a
matter of fairness to allow such plaintiff to receive interest from the
original date of the injury, because that is the date when the harm
began to impact the plaintiff. Furthermore, this proposal would help to
increase efficiency in the judicial system and foster resolution of
cases pending appeal where one side anticipates the realistic outcome of
the case and appeals to extend the litigation and delay payment of a
judgment.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2019-20: S8615/A8454
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
320
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY(Prefiled)
January 8, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. CRUZ -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Codes
AN ACT to amend the civil practice law and rules, in relation to inter-
est to be recovered upon a sum awarded in certain circumstances
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivisions (a) and (c) of section 5001 of the civil prac-
2 tice law and rules are amended to read as follows:
3 (a) Actions in which recoverable. Interest shall be recovered upon a
4 sum awarded because of a breach of performance of a contract, or because
5 of an act or omission depriving or otherwise interfering with title to,
6 or possession or enjoyment of, property, or for bodily injury, except
7 that in an action of an equitable nature, interest and the rate and date
8 from which it shall be computed shall be in the court's discretion.
9 (c) Specifying date; computing interest. The date from which interest
10 is to be computed shall be specified in the verdict, report or decision.
11 In all cases involving bodily injury, the interest shall be computed
12 from the date of injury or loss. If a jury is discharged without speci-
13 fying the date, the court upon motion shall fix the date, except that
14 where the date is certain and not in dispute, the date may be fixed by
15 the clerk of the court upon affidavit. The amount of interest shall be
16 computed by the clerk of the court, to the date the verdict was rendered
17 or the report or decision was made, and included in the total sum
18 awarded.
19 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00722-01-5
