United States, ex rel. Gwen Thrower v. Academy Mortgage Corporation

Under 28 U.S.C. §1961, post-judgment interest “shall be allowed on any money judgment in a civil case recovered in a district court”—including attorneys’ fees—and “shall be calculated from the date of the entry of the judgment.” All courts agree that this entitlement to post-judgment interest applies to awards of attorneys’ fees. And five circuits have held that interest accrues from the date of the entry of the judgment unconditionally entitling a party to fees, even if the fee amount is not specified until a later order. But the decision below joins three other circuits in embracing the minority position that interest on an attorneys’ fees award does not begin to run until the court has quantified the amount of fees owed. That conclusion deprived petitioner of hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest that she would have been entitled to recover in the majority of circuits. And it further entrenched an open and acknowledged circuit split over the meaning of a statute that Congress enacted to ensure uniformity in the treatment of interest. The question presented is: Whether entry of a judgment definitively establishing a plaintiff’s entitlement to attorneys’ fees triggers accrual of post-judgment interest on those fees.