The U.S. Supreme Court case Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. et al. v. Bonjorno et al., 1989, revolved around the issue of calculating pre-judgment interest in federal courts under Pennsylvania law for a patent infringement lawsuit that had been ongoing since 1978 between Kaiser Aluminum and Michael Bonjorno's company, Filtrol Corporation. The court ruled in favor of Bonjorno, stating that prejudgment interest should be calculated from the date when damages were "ascertainable" rather than from the date of infringement as argued by Kaiser Aluminium. This decision was based on an interpretation of Pennsylvania state law which allowed plaintiffs to recover lost profits due to delayed payment after damages became certain or capable of being made certain by calculation.

In the dissenting opinion for Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. v. Bonjorno, Justice White disagreed with the majority's decision to apply a post-judgment interest rate from the date of judgment rather than from when damages were incurred. He argued that this approach would lead to unfair results and potentially overcompensate plaintiffs by allowing them to recover more than their actual losses due to inflation or changes in market conditions between the time of injury and final judgment. Additionally, he expressed concern that this ruling could discourage defendants from appealing judgments because they would continue accruing interest at a potentially higher rate during appeal process, even if they ultimately prevailed on some issues on appeal.