{"id":904381,"date":"2025-05-28T16:10:04","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T22:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=904381"},"modified":"2025-05-20T16:27:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T22:27:16","slug":"chapter-93a-damages-calculating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/chapter-93a-damages-calculating\/","title":{"rendered":"Calculating Chapter 93A\u00a0Damages: Takeaways from Diprio v. Ground Up Construction, Inc."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>David G. Thomas and Angela C. Bunnell | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lexology.com\/library\/detail.aspx?g=9a110c74-87e1-4267-b7a1-648730e9dffc&amp;utm_source=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed&amp;utm_medium=HTML+email+-+Body+-+General+section&amp;utm_campaign=Lexology+subscriber+daily+feed&amp;utm_content=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed+2025-05-14&amp;utm_term=\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">GreenbergTraurig<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\u00a0<em>Diprio v. Ground Up Constr., Inc<\/em>., the Massachusetts Appeals Court considered the appropriateness of an award of attorneys\u2019 fees to pro se litigants\u2014homeowners who sued a contractor for violating a Massachusetts Home Improvement Contractor Statute (HICS)\u2014and the proper measure of damages under 93A, Section 9. At trial, a jury found that (i) the plaintiff homeowners breached their home improvement contract and (ii) the contractor breached the HICS\u2014each causing damages for the same amount and effectively \u201ccanceling out\u201d the payment of damages. However, the trial court concluded that the contractor\u2019s violation of the HICS violated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/in-massachusetts-the-statute-of-repose-applies-to-consumer-protection-claims-against-building-contractors\/\">Chapter 93A<\/a>, Section 9 and awarded attorneys\u2019 fees to the pro se homeowners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The trial court\u2019s attorney fee award focused on fees incurred before the pro se homeowners\u2019 counsel withdrew from the case. However, as the award was based on a factual issue that had some record support, the Appeals Court did not vacate the award and factual finding that the fees were incurred \u201cin connection with said action\u201d as Section 9(4) requires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As to damages, the Appeals Court disagreed with the homeowners\u2019 assertion that the trial judge erred in ascertaining the base damages on which to calculate multiple damages under Section 9. According to the homeowners, the trial judge should have multiplied their damages using the total amount of the judgment entered and not using the single damages figure the jury determined. As the Appeals Court explained, however, the judgment amount included prejudgment interest and attorneys\u2019 fees, which are not elements of damages under Section 9(4).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This case demonstrates that parties and counsel should consider each element of damages when seeking and defending against Chapter 93A claims to avoid improper multiplication of amounts that are not properly included in a multiple damages award. Specifically, when considering multiple damages, a court should calculate interest on the single damages award only (absent some claim that fees and costs should be damages), and then add the interest and fees to the single damages once they are multiplied. That way, interest and fees are not inappropriately inflated by a multiple damages finding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When one of your cases is in need of a construction expert, estimates, insurance appraisal or umpire services in defect or insurance disputes &#8211; please call Advise &amp; Consult, Inc. at 888.684.8305, or email <a href=\"mailto:experts@adviseandconsult.net\">experts@adviseandconsult.net<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David G. Thomas and Angela C. Bunnell | GreenbergTraurig In\u00a0Diprio v. Ground Up Constr., Inc., the Massachusetts Appeals Court considered the appropriateness of an award of attorneys\u2019 fees to pro se litigants\u2014homeowners who sued a contractor for violating a Massachusetts Home Improvement Contractor Statute (HICS)\u2014and the proper measure of damages under 93A, Section 9. At&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/chapter-93a-damages-calculating\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Calculating Chapter 93A\u00a0Damages: Takeaways from Diprio v. Ground Up Construction, Inc.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9721],"tags":[9895,528,12161,9836],"class_list":["post-904381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-property-damage","tag-advise-consult","tag-attorney-fees","tag-chapter-93a","tag-massachusetts","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Calculating Chapter 93A\u00a0Damages: Takeaways from Diprio v. 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