Opinion ID: 1187135
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Proportional fault.

Text: A second problem posed by the statute is the question exactly what is to be assessed in determining the percentage of fault attributable to the person seeking recovery, and whether that person's fault was greater than the combined fault of the person or persons against whom recovery is sought. The question has puzzled commentators as well as courts. At least three views are possible. A. Quantifying fault. The first is that the formula calls upon the factfinder to assess the relative magnitude of the parties' respective fault. As stated by a leading textbook on these laws: The process is not allocation of physical causation, which could be scientifically apportioned, but rather of allocating fault, which cannot be scientifically measured. Schwartz, Comparative Negligence 276 (1974). It has been recognized that fault is an evaluation that does not lend itself to quantification, so that a comparison of fault magnifies the subjective elements already intrinsic to the ordinary judgment of negligence. [8] This is true even in assigning proportions to two or more distinct types of negligence, but critics have found a greater theoretical obstacle when the responsibility of one party is grounded in fault other than negligence, or in no fault at all. [9] The obstacle is greater where strict products liability is explained as a device for spreading losses from economic activity regardless of fault, but this court early disavowed that explanation, at least in the absence of legislation. See Phillips v. Kimwood Machine Co., supra, 269 Or. 485, 503, 525 P.2d 1033, Markle v. Mulholland's, Inc., 265 Or. 259, 264-265, 509 P.2d 529 (1973), Wights v. Staff Jennings, 241 Or. 301, 309-310, 405 P.2d 624 (1965). We have said that the premise of responsibility has settled on strict liability for marketing the dangerously defective product, a premise stricter than negligence but less than absolute liability. Russell v. Ford Motor Co., 281 Or. 587, 594, 575 P.2d 1383 (1978). Whether the fault in products liability inheres in the defective product or in the act of placing it on the market, however, difficulties of comparison with the injured party's fault undeniably remain. [10] B. Comparative causation. Some courts, applying comparative negligence law to products liability under statutes different from ours or under no statute, have tried to escape the difficulty by stating that the allocation of damages is to reflect relative causation, that is to say, an assessment of the proportion in which the plaintiff's injuries were caused by the product defect on the one hand and by plaintiff's own negligence on the other. See, e.g., Murray v. Fairbanks Morse, 610 F.2d 149 (3rd Cir.1979) (applying Virgin Islands comparative negligence statute) and cases cited at 159-160; Pan-Alaska Fisheries, Inc. v. Marine Const. & Design Co., 565 F.2d 1129 (9th Cir. 1977) (admiralty law). They have done so in the belief that this is conceptually more logical or pragmatically easier than to compare the defect of a product with the negligence of one whom it has injured. In Murray v. Fairbanks Morse , for instance, Judge Rosenn wrote for the Third Circuit: The key conceptual distinction between strict products liability theory and negligence is that the plaintiff need not prove faulty conduct on the part of the defendant in order to recover. The jury is not asked to determine if the defendant deviated from a standard of care in producing his product. There is no proven faulty conduct of the defendant to compare with the faulty conduct of the plaintiff in order to apportion the responsibility for an accident. Although we may term a defective product faulty, it is qualitatively different from the plaintiff's conduct that contributes to his injury. A comparison of the two is therefore inappropriate.... We believe that if the loss for a particular injury is to be apportioned between the product defect and the plaintiff's misconduct, the only conceptual basis for comparison is the causative contribution of each to the particular loss or injury. In apportioning damages we are really asking how much of the injury was caused by the defect in the product versus how much was caused by the plaintiff's own actions.... 610 F.2d at 159. [11] With due respect to these courts, however, we are not persuaded that the concept of comparative causation is more cogent or meaningful than comparative fault, if by causation is meant some relation of cause and effect in the physical world rather than the very attribution of responsibility for which causation is to serve as the premise. Both the defect and the plaintiff's fault must in fact be causes of one injury before a question of apportionment of fault arises. Although defendants in this case had completed all acts necessary for liability when they manufactured and mounted a dangerously defective tire that might blow out and overturn the Sandford pickup, they obviously would not be liable if the pickup overturned for some unrelated reason. Similarly, it would not matter that a driver operated his car unlawfully or recklessly if he was injured by an explosion due to an electrical defect that would have occurred with the same harmful consequences if the car had been standing still. In less obvious situations where the physical course of events is in doubt, if either party convinces the factfinder that its misconduct in fact was not a cause of the injury, there is no occasion for allocating partial damages. The concept of apportioning causation must be tested on the assumption that both causes had to join to produce the injury for which damages are to be allocated. There are cases in which it may be possible to segregate the harm done by one cause from different or incremental harm done by a second cause, so as to apply proportional allocation to the additional harm only. This might be possible when a quantitative increase in a source of harm causes a corresponding increase in the injury, such as side effects from a negligent overdose of a dangerously defective drug, or if, for instance, Mrs. Sandford had broken a leg in an accident caused by the defective tire and thereafter had been burned by material negligently stored in her vehicle. Alternative solutions of such problems are discussed in Twerski, The Use and Abuse of Comparative Negligence in Products Liability, 10 Ind.L.Rev. 796, 810-823 (1977); as the litigants in today's cases present no such issues, we do not pursue them here. For the same reason, we do not discuss situations in which either the defect or the injured party's negligence alone would cause the entire injury, as in a claimant's neglect properly to use faulty safety equipment which would not have functioned if used, when the parties might debate whether the negligence or the preexisting defect doomed the claimant to suffer his injuries. Once it is assumed, however, that two or more distinct causes had to occur to produce an indivisible injury, we doubt that the purpose of the proportional fault concept is to subject the combined causation to some kind of vector analysis, even in the rare case of simultaneous, physically commensurable forces. [12] In most cases, it would be a vain exercise to search for a common physical measure for the causative effect of a product defect and of the injured party's negligent conduct. C. Mixing fault with proximate causation. A third view considers it futile to attempt to explain what is to be compared, because it is equally illogical to compare strict liability with negligence and to quantify the relative causative effect of either when it would have caused no harm in the absence of the other. Thus Dean Twerski, in the cited article, describes the technical problems of making the comparison as a red herring: The short answer to the dilemma of how one can compare strict liability and negligence is that one must simply close one's eyes and accomplish the task. 10 Ind.L.Rev. 796, 806-808. [13] The opinion in Pan-Alaska, supra, similarly questions the significance of theoretical distinctions when it states: In any event, whether we use the term comparative fault, contributory negligence, comparative causation, or even comparative blameworthiness, we are merely beating around the semantical bush seeking to achieve an equitable method of allocating the responsibility for an injury or loss.... 565 F.2d at 1139. In part this second view rests on the assumption that rational analysis in tort cases dissolves in the collegial judgment of juries. [14] That is probably an unwarranted generalization; ability and effort to decide in accordance with law can be expected to differ from one jury to the next with such variables as the makeup of the particular jury, with the quality of evidence and advocacy, and not least with the rationality of the legal formulations in which the court explains the jury's task to it. In any event, the assumption does not let us escape the need to state coherent rules of liability. Some tort cases are tried to the court without a jury, as Pan-Alaska, supra, illustrates. Trial judges must know on what findings an apportionment of damages depends, whether these are to be made by the judge or by a jury. Our system of appeal as well as trial predicates that jurors will conscientiously attempt to apply the law if it is explained in comprehensible terms. Sedillo v. City of Portland, 234 Or. 28, 33, 380 P.2d 115 (1963); Stage v. St. Pierre, 224 Or. 395, 401, 356 P.2d 432 (1960); Williams v. Portland Gen. Elec., 195 Or. 597, 610, 247 P.2d 494 (1952). A juror who wants to know how to treat cause and how to treat fault is entitled to an answer, whatever comes of it in a collective decision. Counsel need to know whether to address the relative gravity of the parties' fault or to seek expert testimony on the relative impact of their respective fault in causing the asserted harm. We cannot dismiss the question as a distinction without a difference. The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws attempted to overcome the distinction, or perhaps split the difference, in a proposed Uniform Comparative Fault Act, by calling on the factfinder, in determining the percentages of fault, to consider both the nature of the conduct of each party at fault and the extent of the causal relation between the conduct and the damages claimed. See Wade, Products Liability and Plaintiff's Fault  The Uniform Comparative Fault Act, 29 Mercer L.Rev. 373 (1978). This might add the difficulties of comparing causation to those of comparing fault if causation in fact were meant, especially since the act also calls for special findings. But the comments indicate that the extent of the causal relation does not mean causation in fact but what has traditionally been labeled proximate cause. [15] In Murray v. Fairbanks Morse, supra , also, proximate causation rather than factual causation turns out to be what the court means by comparative causation. [16] This court has declined to phrase as issues of causation what actually are issues of legal responsibility at least since Justice O'Connell's concurring opinion in Dewey v. A.F. Klaveness & Co., 233 Or. 515, 519-45, 379 P.2d 560 (1963). See Vetri, Tort Markings: Chief Justice O'Connell's Contributions to Tort Law, 56 Or.L.Rev. 235, 238-242 (1977). Causation in Oregon law refers to causation in fact, that is to say, whether someone examining the event without regard to legal consequences would conclude that the allegedly faulty conduct or condition in fact played a role in its occurrence. `Causation in fact' is unrelated to `proximate' or `legal' cause, concepts which have been discarded by this court. McEwen v. Ortho Pharmaceutical, 270 Or. 375, 385 n. 7, 528 P.2d 522 (1974); see also Babler Bros. Inc. v. Pacific Intermountain Express Co., 244 Or. 459, 415 P.2d 735 (1966). What can be a cause in fact is a person's behavior, which is a fact, not its faulty or faultless character, which is a legal characterization. In many cases, therefore, there will be no question of causation for a factfinder to decide. Once the test of legal responsibility thus is no longer phrased as a quantum of causation, it would mark a departure if such a phrasing were reintroduced by the proportionate fault statute. An examination of the statute shows that it was not. D. Proportionate fault under ORS 18.470. ORS 18.470, supra, by its terms applies whenever the fault attributable to the person seeking recovery was not greater than the combined fault of the person or persons against whom recovery is sought. If there was such fault, any damages allowed shall be diminished in the proportion to the percentage of fault attributable to the person recovering. There is no reference to causation, or to any question how much the fault of each contributed to the injury. Indeed, the reference to negligence contributing to the injury in former ORS 18.470 was removed in the 1975 amendment. We do not mean that the allegedly faulty conduct or condition need not have affected the event for which recovery is sought; as we have said, it must have been a cause in fact. But the statute does not call for apportioning damages by quantifying the contribution of several causes that had to coincide to produce the injury. Rather, ORS 18.470 falls within the first of the different approaches that we have reviewed. It calls upon the factfinder to assess and quantify fault. If the plaintiff's conduct is not faultless, the assessment has two purposes: to determine whether her fault is not greater than that of defendants, and if it is not, then to reduce the plaintiff's recovery of damages in the proportion to the percentage of fault attributable to the plaintiff. The question remains against what standard this percentage of fault introduced by the 1975 amendment is to be measured. The answer is implicit in the two steps found in the statute, one in the amended ORS 18.470 and the second in section 2 of the act, codified in ORS 18.480. First, if the plaintiff's behavior which was one cause of the injury is alleged to have been negligent or otherwise fault, it is to be measured against behavior that would have been faultless under the circumstances. The factfinder is to determine the degree to which the plaintiff's behavior fell short of that norm and express this deficit as a numerical percentage, which then is applied to diminish the recoverable damages. There necessarily must be some comparable assessment of the fault attributable to defendants as a departure from the norm invoked against them (which, in products liability, will involve the magnitude of the defect rather than negligence or moral blameworthiness) in order to determine which is greater. [17] In this comparison, the benchmark for assessing a defendant's fault for marketing a product which is dangerously defective in design, manufacture, or warning is what the product should have been without the defect. The benchmark for the injured claimant's fault is conduct which would not be unlawful or careless in any relevant respect. This corresponds to views expressed by the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine: [A]pportionment is on the basis of fault or blame. This involves a comparison of the culpability of the parties, meaning by culpability not moral blame but the degree of departure from the standard of a reasonable man.... [C]omparison is invited between degrees of fault which may range from trivial inadvertence to the grossest recklessness.... In judging the conduct of an actor it should be considered complete carefulness is at one end, a deliberate intention to bring about the result is at the other. Negligence ranges from the least blameworthy type, namely, inadvertence and negligent errors of judgment up to a state where knowledge or more complete knowledge supervenes and the negligence of obstinacy, self-righteousness or reckless is reached. The factfinder must be told then under our statute, it should give consideration to the relative blameworthiness of the causative fault of the claimant and of the defendant. Wing v. Morse, 300 A.2d 491, 500 (Me. 1973). Quoting this excerpt, one writer suggests: One method of conceptualizing the share of the negligence [or fault] attributable to each party is to imagine a `fault line,' with the absence of fault at one end having a value of zero and a deliberate wrongdoing at the other having a value of ten. The fact finder would then establish where on this line the conduct of each party falls. Pearson, Apportionment of Losses Under Comparative Fault Laws  An Analysis of the Alternatives, 40 La.L.Rev. 346, 348-9 (1980). Although Professor Pearson acknowledges that this fault line method cannot be as precise as it sounds, he suggests that it does provide a means of visualizing the fact finder's task, which perhaps could be put into a useful form. Id. If the claimant's fault in this sense is greater than the fault of defendants, recovery is barred. Thereafter, ORS 18.470 standing alone does not seem to assign any further role to the magnitude of defendants' fault in calculating the percentage of plaintiff's damages that she may recover. [18] Section 2 of the 1975 act, however, added directions for the second step. ORS 18.480 provides: (1) When requested by any party the trier of fact shall answer special questions indicating: (a) The amount of damages to which a party seeking recovery would be entitled, assuming that party not to be at fault; (b) The degree of each party's fault expressed as a percentage of the total fault attributable to all parties represented in the action. (2) A jury shall be informed of the legal effect of its answer to the questions listed in subsection (1) of this section. Accordingly, after determining whether and how far each party's conduct was at fault, measured against the norm governing that party's conduct, these respective degrees of fault are to be converted into a percentage which will be applied to the plaintiff's total damages to determine his actual recovery. [19] To summarize: When an injured claimant's misconduct is a cause in fact of the injury, it can defeat a products liability claim if the claimant's fault is greater than the defendants' combined fault involved in marketing the defective product. If it is not greater, plaintiff's fault proportionately reduces her recoverable damages. Fault includes contributory negligence except for such unobservant, inattentive, ignorant, or awkward failure of the injured party to discover the defect or to guard against it as is taken into account in finding the particular product dangerously defective. Accordingly, we reject plaintiff's assertion that ordinary negligence on her part would not be an offset or possible defense against her products liability claim.