Ohio Supreme Court certified post-judgment interest rate question

The Ohio Supreme Court resolved a certified question last Tuesday as to whether a bill adjusting post-judgment interest rates applied to final judgments entered prior to the bill’s effective date, but not paid in full pending appeals.
The Court answered in the affirmative. ( Court’s summary )( Decision )

A Marion, Ohio court awarded compensatory and punitive damages to a man in a workplace injury case against his employer in April 2003. The employer withheld payment while appealing the trial court’s decisions. In the interim, the statute was amended from a rate of 10% to “a variable rate to be recalculated annually by applying a new statutory formula.” The employer used this new rate as the basis of his calculations for post-judgment interest, which the man challenged.

The 3rd. District Court of Appeals sided with the man’s position and said he was entitled to the 10% rate from the date of the trial court’s judgment to the date of the employer’s final satisfaction because that was the rate in force at the time of the judgment entry. But the 3rd. District also certified the case, recognizing that it was in conflict with a 2005 10th. District appropriations case, and a 2006 arbitration case from the 8th. District.