Cite as: 533 U. S. 1 (2001)
Syllabus
this case's facts and awarding only as much prejudgment interest as was required by balancing the equities. The equities support an award beginning on a date later than the date of first violation. The factors the Special Master considered—that no one thought that the pact was being violated in the early years after it was signed and that a long interval passed between the original injuries and these proceedings, as well as the dramatic impact of compounding interest over many years— fully justify his view that prejudgment interest should not be awarded for any years before either party was aware of the excessive pumping. Colorado suggests that prejudgment interest should begin to accrue in 1985, the year the complaint was filed, rather than 1969, when Colorado knew or should have known that it was violating the Compact. Though the issue is close, the equities favor the later date. In overruling Colorado's exceptions to the second report, this Court held that Kansas was not guilty of inexcusable delay in failing to complain more promptly about the post-Compact pumping because the nature and extent of the violations were unclear even years after the violation became obvious. That conclusion is a double-edged sword. Both States' interests would have been served had the claim been advanced promptly after its basis became known, and it was clear that once the proceedings started they would be complex and protracted. Given the uncertainty over the damages' scope that prevailed from 1968 and 1985 and the fact Kansas had the power to begin the process by which those damages would be quantified, Colorado's request that the Court deny prejudgment interest for that time is reasonable. Pp. 13-16.
4. The Special Master properly determined the value of the crop losses attributable to Compact violations. Thus, Colorado's fourth exception is overruled. Kansas and Colorado disagreed as to how much additional crop yield would have been produced with the missing water. Kansas' experts relied upon the hypothesis of a generally linear relationship between water available for use and increased crop yields. Colorado, whose own expert recanted an alternative proposal for calculating damages, attempts to poke holes in Kansas' methodology through a speculative application of economic theory. That attack is unpersuasive, given Colorado's inability to mount an effective challenge to Kansas' experts on their own terms and its complete failure to provide a plausible alternative estimate of crop damage. Pp. 16-20. Colorado's exceptions sustained in part and overruled in part; Kansas' exception overruled; and case remanded.
Stevens, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, Parts I, IV, and V of which were unanimous, and Parts II and III of which were joined by Rehnquist, C. J., and Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer,
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