Surinderjit Brar v. Thrifty Payless Inc

MEMORANDUM

Plaintiffs-Appellants Surinderjit Singh Brar and Balvir Kaur Brar (together, the “Brars”) appeal the decision by the district court, following a bench trial, awarding Defendant-Appellee Thrifty Payless Inc. (“Thrifty”) the earnest money paid by the Brars and Counterclaim-Defendants Amarjeet Singh and Aswinder Brar (collectively, the “Buyers”) pursuant to a failed commercial real estate sales agreement. Thrifty cross-appeals the court’s denial of prejudgement interest. We have jurisdiction in this diversity action, 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm the award of the earnest money to Thrifty, reverse the denial of prejudgment interest, and remand for entry of an amended judgment. As the parties are familiar with the facts, we repeat them here only as necessary to explain our decision.

We review a district court’s findings of fact following a bench trial for clear error and its conclusions of law de novo. Jarvis v. K2 Inc., 486 F.3d 526, 529 (9th Cir.2007). Under Washington law, “[i]f a contract requires performance by both parties, the party claiming nonperform-anee of the other must first establish as a matter of fact the party’s own performance,” unless that performance…