Opinion ID: 2061056
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Right of Contribution.

Text: In 1918 this Court concluded that an enforceable right of contribution among unintentional joint tort-feasors is an equitable right founded upon acknowledged principles of natural justice. Maine thus became one of the few states which have recognized this doctrine without legislation. Prosser, The Law of Torts, 3rd Ed. page 274. Hobbs v. Hurley, 117 Me. 449, 104 A. 815 (1918). This principle was reacknowledged by Bedell v. Reagan, 159 Me. 292, 192 A.2d 24 (1963). In Hobbs it was held that one of two unintentional joint tort-feasors, having paid the entire sum of the judgment on which the two were jointly liable, could recover of the other his proportional part of one half. In Scammon v. City of Saco, Me., 247 A.2d 108 (1968) we declined to abandon this accepted principle of equal contribution. At the time of the Scammon accident, however, the common law rule of contributory negligence still prevailed here. Since then there has become effective in Maine P.L.1965, Chap. 424 (now 14 M.R. S.A. § 156) which established the doctrine of comparative negligence. The concept of a proportional recovery based upon comparative percentages of causal fault of Plaintiff and Defendant, adopted by the legislature, strongly suggests our reconsideration of the merits of a doctrine of contribution based upon percentages of causal fault. The opportunity for examination of the principle has now properly been presented to us. Tufts v. Hatch, supra. In the meantime, our Legislature in 1969 has invited our reconsideration of this doctrine when it amended the comparative negligence law by adding: In a case involving multi-party defendants, each defendant shall be jointly and severally liable to the plaintiff for the full amount of the plaintiff's damages. However, any defendant shall have the right through the use of special interrogatories to request of the jury the percentage of fault contributed by each defendant. The first sentence simply restates the common law rule. Cleveland v. City of Bangor, 87 Me. 259, 32 A. 892 (1895). The second sentence would appear to have little purpose except to lay the basis for a comparative contribution. The doctrine of contribution is a judicial concept predicated upon the equitable principle that one of two or more tort-feasors should not in fairness be required to undertake the entire burden of indemnifying the injured party. Our determination that responsibility should be divided equally among the tort-feasors was only a step toward a truly just distribution of responsibility. In 1963 the Wisconsin Court studied the equities of the two concepts of contribution and said (Bielski v. Schulze, 16 Wis.2d 1, 114 N.W.2d 105) If the doctrine is to do equity, there is no reason in logic or in natural justice why the shares of common liability of joint tortfeasors should not be translated into the percentage of the causal negligence which contributed to the injury. This is merely a refinement of the equitable principle. It is difficult to justify, either on a layman's sense of justice or on natural justice, why a joint tortfeasor who is 5% causally negligent should only recover 50% of the amount he paid to the plaintiff from a co-tortfeasor who is 95% causally negligent, and conversely why the defendant who is found 5% causally negligent should be required to pay 50% of the loss by way of reimbursement to the co-tortfeasor who is 95% negligent. We arrive at the same conclusion. It is particularly appropriate that when recovery by a Plaintiff is measured on the basis of proportionate fault, as our Legislature has determined it should be, the ultimate assumption of responsibility should rest on the same equitable basis. The philosophy underlying the two principles is the same although comparative negligence is in Maine a legislative creation while contribution is of judicial origin. Our own Comparative Negligence statute predicates recovery on comparative fault, an apt choice of word because the statute is not concerned with negligence, however great, which is not a proximate cause of the injury. Under both principles the trier of the fact is called upon to determine the respective parties' shares of responsibility through negligence for the total damage suffered by the Plaintiff. We see no reason why in logic or in justice the law should expect that the joint tort-feasor should ultimately be required to contribute moreor lessthan a share of the total damages proportionate to his causal fault. Since Hobbs our new Rules of Civil Procedure have made available to our Courts and our bar the well designed devices of cross-claims, special verdicts and interrogatories which are appropriate for presenting the new issues for the jury's determination. More than five years' experience in apportioning causal fault under our Comparative Negligence law convinces us that this change as to contribution will result in no insuperable difficulties for the courts or juries. We hold, then, that any contribution by joint tort-feasors shall be in proportion to the contributions of each one to the damages suffered by the Plaintiff. Appeals dismissed as to judgments for Tappers and Louries against Mrs. Whitten and denied as to their judgments against Coca-Cola, all on liability only. Appeals denied as to judgment for Mrs. Packard against Mrs. Whitten and Coca-Cola for $90,000. Appeals of Mrs. Whitten and Coca-Cola denied on their cross-claims for contribution. WEBBER, J., did not sit. MARDEN, J., sat at argument but retired before the adoption of this opinion.