Opinion ID: 1735196
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Whether a Limited Remand is Appropriate.

Text: Because of our decision regarding the application of joint and several liability, we need not address Anderson and IMT's alternative argument for a new trial because the trial court failed to properly instruct the jury on an acting-in-concert or joint enterprise theory. We do, however, need to address Naughton's argument that, under these circumstances, a limited remand for a judgment entry is inappropriate. Naughton believes such a remand is inappropriate because the effect of applying joint and several liability to Naughton directly contradicts what the jury was told in instruction No. 24. The relevant part of instruction No. 24 read: If you assign to a Defendant less than 50% of the total fault, that Defendant will only be liable to the extent of the percentage of fault assigned by you. I will order the defendants to contribute to the payment of damages awarded on the basis of the percentages of fault you insert in your answers to the questions at the end of these instructions. Of course, the jury found Naughton only twenty percent at fault. Thus, the jury believed Naughton would not be held jointly and severally liable. We have determined, however, that because Naughton was found liable under a concert of action theory, and because joint and several liability under such a theory has not been abrogated or modified by our CFA, Naughton is jointly and severally liable for the combined fault of the concerted actors. Naughton correctly pointed out in his reply brief that neither Anderson nor IMT responded to this argument in their briefs. At oral argument, counsel for Anderson merely made the point that he does not think a new trial is necessary. He stated the legal implication of the jury's assessment of fault can be refined by the court. Certainly the legal implications of a jury's assessment of fault can be refined by the court. For example, a district court may apply joint and several liability to a defendant when it is found fifty-percent or more at fault under our CFA. See Iowa Code § 668.4. Thus, if a defendant is found fifty percent at fault, and the total fault excluding plaintiff's is ninety percent, the court refines the fifty percent attributable to said defendant to reflect that he or she is jointly and severally liable for the entire ninety percent fault attributable to those other than the plaintiff. This does not mean, however, that the district court may erroneously mislead the jury in how it may refine the percentages of fault the jury assigns. Such would be the case here if we were to remand the case with instructions to hold Naughton jointly and severally liable, despite the jury's instruction at trial that any defendant, including Naughton, would not be jointly and severally liable unless they were fifty percent or more at fault. In Reese v. Werts Corp., 379 N.W.2d 1, 4 (Iowa 1985), we reversed and remanded the case for a new trial for two reasons. One reason was because the trial court gave misleading advice in its instructions to the jury. Reese, 379 N.W.2d at 4. Regarding this misleading advice, we stated: The jury was told that plaintiff's recovery would be reduced by the percentage that her negligence bore to the total negligence of the parties. If this were true plaintiff's recovery would have been $95,000 instead of $15,000. Having undertaken to instruct the jury on the effect of its determinations, we believe the court was required to instruct accurately. Id. at 3. In this case, the trial court did instruct the jury upon the effect of its determinations, and as it was required to do under Iowa Code section 668.3. See Iowa Code § 668.3(5) (If the claim is tried to a jury, the court shall give instructions and permit evidence and argument with respect to the effects of the answers to be returned to the interrogatories submitted under this section.). In Schwennen v. Abell, 430 N.W.2d 98 (Iowa 1988), we approved of our holding in Reese and stated the following: A salient feature of our comparative fault legislation is the provision in section 668.3(5) that the jury must be made aware of the effect of its fault apportionment on the claimant's right of recovery. In Reese, 379 N.W.2d at 4, we found it to be reversible error for the court to fail to instruct on this matter or to give misleading instructions with respect thereto. The instructions given the jury in the present case were based on the premise that William could be subjected, as he was, to some allocation of causal fault. When William's fault is disregarded the interpolated verdicts suggested by Mary will have a substantially different effect on the Schwennen defendants and Floyd County than the jury would have perceived them to have under the trial court's instructions. This circumstance, we believe, requires that the apportionment of fault among the remaining parties must be tried anew. Schwennen, 430 N.W.2d at 104. We likewise approved of our holding in Reese, and also Schwennen, in a more recent opinion. See Wilson v. Farm Bureau Mut. Ins. Co., 714 N.W.2d 250, 260-61 (Iowa 2006). In Wilson we made it clear that [i]mplicit in both Reese and Schwennen was the fact that the erroneous and misleading instructions tainted the jury verdicts resulting in prejudice to the parties challenging the verdicts. 714 N.W.2d at 261. The same is the case here. Under our holding, which changes the effect of the verdict and which Naughton challenges, Naughton suffers prejudice because joint and several liability applies. As a result, the case must be tried anew.