Opinion ID: 1822087
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: May a Strictly Liable or Negligent Seller Obtain Contribution From a Plaintiff's Employer?

Text: In Iowa Power and Light Co. v. Abild Construction Co., 259 Iowa 314, 318-22, 144 N.W.2d 303, 306-08 (1966), we held that a person liable in negligence to another person's employee may not obtain contribution from the employer who was charged with the responsibility to provide workers' compensation for the employee. The Abild opinion thoroughly reviewed the law of Iowa and other jurisdictions, then concluded that the tortfeasor might maintain an action for indemnity against the employer based on several theories but not an action for contribution. This court reasoned that the tortfeasor would be unable to establish common liability, a prerequisite for equitable contribution, because the employer's liability would derive exclusively from the statute mandating payment of workers' compensation. Id. at 319, 144 N.W.2d at 306. In Thompson v. Stearns Chemical Corp., 345 N.W.2d 131 (Iowa 1984), we revisited the Abild holding against a backdrop of comparative negligence and the strict liability applicable to sellers of products. Like defendants in this case, the defendant in Thompson sought contribution from the employer of an employee who had brought negligence and strict liability claims arising out of use of an allegedly defective product in his work place. Like defendants here, the defendant in Thompson contended that our adoption of comparative negligence should lead to a rejection or modification of Abild in negligence as well as strict liability cases. We declined to abandon Abild, pointing out that our denial of contribution had been based on the lack of common liability between a third party and an employer. Id. at 134. We wrote: The real issue is whether we wish to cast out or redefine our rule conditioning contribution on the common liability of joint tortfeasors. Id. That precise issue is again before us, both with regard to defendants' request to permit full contribution proportionate to the parties' fault, and their somewhat narrower request to permit contribution as an offset against the amount of the employer's workers' compensation lien. Our conclusion is the same as in Thompson. The right of contribution in Iowa is conditioned on the existence of common liability, and the employer may not be held liable for contribution because the statutory liability under our workers' compensation law is unlike the defendant tortfeasors' liability based on negligence or strict liability theories. Id. at 136. The trial court also properly struck Unit Handling's affirmative defense asserting that the employer's negligence should reduce proportionately its liability to the plaintiff. Such a proportionate reduction of plaintiff's recovery would impermissibly shift to plaintiff a burden to defend allegations of the employer's negligence when under Thompson the employer's negligence is not a basis on which the seller may escape or reduce its liability to the injured party. The trial court correctly applied established principles of Iowa law, which both preceded and survived our adoption of comparative negligence, in denying defendants' attempt to obtain contribution from plaintiff's employer and also in striking the affirmative defense concerning plaintiff's alleged negligence. AFFIRMED AND REMANDED. All Justices concur except HARRIS, J., who concurs in result only.