Opinion ID: 1657508
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Whether the trial court conducted the proper calculations when applying Radco's settlement to the jury's verdict?

Text: This assignment of error presents a question of first impression in this state. While trial courts have routinely performed calculations of jury awards for disbursement purposes, this Court has not specifically addressed the method to be followed when the calculations involve a settlement between a plaintiff and one or more, but not all, of the co-defendants. Unfortunately, our statutes on joint and several liability do not address damages calculations with regard to this situation. However, some guidance on the proper method for calculating the award can be gleaned from these statutes, case law and other states' jurisprudence. First, McBride argues the pros and cons of what has been termed in various other states as the fault-first method versus the settlement-first method. These terms refer to the split which has formed among various courts with regard to deciding whether the percentage representing the plaintiff's share of the fault should be applied to the plaintiff's gross damages before or after subtracting the amount of the settlement in order to arrive at the plaintiff's net recovery from the nonsettling tortfeasor(s). See: Jeffrey F. Ghent, J.D., Comparative Fault: Calculation of Net Recovery by Applying Percentage of Plaintiff's Fault Before or After Subtracting Amount of Settlement by Less Than All Joint Tortfeasors, 71 A.L.R.4th 1108, 1109 (1989). The following calculations illustrate the substantial difference between these two approaches as applied to the facts of the present case: