Opinion ID: 509511
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Joint or several liability?

Text: 21 As to Simeon's damages, the district court entered judgment against Smith and Lumar severally. (Part VI, infra, of our opinion discusses the apportionment of Mrs. Simeon's recovery for loss of consortium.) We agree with the contention raised by Simeon in his cross-appeal that judgment should have been entered against the defendants jointly.
22 Like the common law, W. Prosser & P. Keeton, Prosser & Keeton on the Law of Torts Sec. 47 at 328 (1984), the general maritime law has long recognized the concept of joint liability. For example, in The Atlas, 93 U.S. 302, 23 L.Ed. 863 (1876), the Supreme Court held that the insurer of cargo lost in a collision between two vessels caused by the fault of both could recover all of its damages from one vessel. The Court borrowed this rule from the common law, which recognized a plaintiff's right to sue ... all the wrong-doers, or any one of them, at his election; and it is equally clear, that, if he did not contribute to the disaster, he is entitled to judgment in either case for the full amount of his loss. Id., at 315, 23 L.Ed. at 866; see also The Alabama, 92 U.S. 695, 23 L.Ed. 763 (1876); The George Washington, 76 U.S. 513, 19 L.Ed. 787 (1870); The Juniata, 93 U.S. 337, 23 L.Ed. 930 (1876); The Sterling, 106 U.S. 647, 1 S.Ct. 89, 90, 27 L.Ed. 98 (1882) (describing the joint liability rule in admiralty as well-established). Neither the Supreme Court nor the lower courts have ever retreated from the rule of joint liability under maritime law. See, e.g., Edmonds v. Compagnie Generale Transatlantique, 443 U.S. 256, 99 S.Ct. 2753, 2756 n. 7, 61 L.Ed.2d 521 (1979); Cooper Stevedoring Co. v. Fritz Kopke, Inc., 417 U.S. 106, 94 S.Ct. 2174, 2178, 40 L.Ed.2d 694 (1974); Seal Offshore, Inc. v. American Standard, Inc., 777 F.2d 1042 (5th Cir.1985); Todd Shipyards Corp. v. Auto Transportation, S.A., 763 F.2d 745, 756 (5th Cir.1985); Central Rivers Towing, Inc. v. City of Beardstown, Ill., 750 F.2d 565, 575 (7th Cir.1984). 23 Collision cases provided the context in which joint liability was applied most frequently, 9 but the rule of joint liability also has been applied in cases, like Simeon's, involving other maritime fault-based claims. See, e.g., Cooper Stevedoring, 94 S.Ct. at 2178 (commenting that plaintiff longshoreman who slipped while loading vessel could have proceeded against either The Vessel or [the nonemployer stevedore company, which had created the dangerous condition in loading at a prior port] or both of them to recover full damages for his injury); Joia v. Jo-Ja Service Corp., 817 F.2d 908 (1st Cir.1987). 10 24 Defendants note that at common law any negligence on the part of the plaintiff barred his recovery, e.g., W. Prosser & P. Keeton, supra, Sec. 65 at 461, and assert that joint liability was designed to soften the impact of the harsh rule of contributory negligence. Defendants reason, therefore, that because the trend developing over the past twenty-five years or so has been for states to replace the common-law rule of contributory negligence with some version of comparative fault, id. Sec. 67 at 471, the concept of joint liability should likewise be retired. Whatever the logic of this argument, it overlooks the fact that [m]ost jurisdictions which have adopted comparative negligence have retained the common law rule of joint and several liability.... Id. at 475; see F. Harper, F. James, O. Gray, 3 The Law of Torts Sec. 10.1, at 31 (2d ed. 1986). More importantly, defendants ignore the fact that maritime law, which historically has adhered to the rule of joint liability, early on rejected the common law's rule of contributory negligence. See generally M. Norris, 2 The Law of Seamen Sec. 30:32 (1985); The Max Morris, 137 U.S. 1, 11 S.Ct. 29, 34 L.Ed. 586 (1890). 25 In The Max Morris, the Supreme Court noted that contributory negligence as a bar to recovery in ship collision cases was rejected in The Catharine v. Dickinson, 17 How. 170, 15 L.Ed. 233 (1855), which adopted the well established English rule of divided damages. However, noted the Court, the lower federal courts were in disagreement over whether to apply the common law's rule of contributory negligence outside the collision context. 11 S.Ct. at 32. The Max Morris, which was not a collision case, resolved this conflict. That case was an admiralty suit brought by a longshoreman who fell from a vessel's bridge to the deck while loading coal. Although the longshoreman was contributorily negligent, the Supreme Court held that [c]ontributory negligence in a case like the present should not wholly bar recovery, id. at 33, but would merely reduce it. Id. The Supreme Court has never wavered from The Max Morris. Justice Black's comment more than thirty years ago in Pope & Talbot, Inc. v. Hawn, 346 U.S. 406, 74 S.Ct. 202, 204, 98 L.Ed. 143 (1953), remains an accurate description of this aspect of admiralty law: The harsh rule of the common law under which contributory negligence wholly barred an injured person from recovery is completely incompatible with modern admiralty policy and practice. See also Edmonds v. Compagnie Generale Transatlantique, 443 U.S. 256, 99 S.Ct. 2753, 2755 n. 2, 61 L.Ed.2d 521 (1979); Lewis v. Timco, Inc., 716 F.2d 1425, 1427 (5th Cir.1983) (en banc). 26 In multiple defendant cases where plaintiff also is negligent, it has never been suggested that joint liability is inapplicable. In Gele v. Chevron Oil Co., 574 F.2d 243 (5th Cir.1978), the accident occurred when a pleasure fishing boat collided with an oil company flare pipe in the Gulf of Mexico. The plaintiff was a passenger on the fishing boat. The district court found that the oil company was wholly responsible; we held this finding clearly erroneous on grounds that those operating the fishing boat were partly to blame because the boat had been traveling at an imprudent speed. Id. at 249. We remanded the case for a determination of whether plaintiff was partly responsible for operating the fishing boat. Speaking for the Court, Judge Brown observed in Gele that (1) any negligence by plaintiff would not bar his recovery, but merely reduce it, id. at 250, and (2) that plaintiff had a right to collect all his damages from one party in the event he is unable to obtain a relative portion of damages from each party at fault. Id. at 251; see also Empire Seafoods, Inc. v. Anderson, 398 F.2d 204 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 983, 89 S.Ct. 449, 21 L.Ed.2d 444 (1968) (holding that the joint liability rule applies even when plaintiff is contributorily negligent); Drake Towing Co. v. Meisner Marine Construction Co., 765 F.2d 1060, 1067 (11th Cir.1985) (holding that plaintiff could recover all damages except those representing his share of negligence from one of two joint tort-feasors); Joia v. Jo-Ja Service Corp., 817 F.2d 908 (1st Cir.1987) (same). 11 27 In sum, our investigation shows that under maritime law concurrent tort-feasors are jointly liable, even when plaintiff is contributorily negligent. However, only Lumar was a maritime defendant. Smith's liability arises solely under the Jones Act; hence, we must determine whether a rule of joint liability is consistent with that statute.
28 The Jones Act, 46 U.S.C.App. Sec. 688, incorporates the Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA), 45 U.S.C. Sec. 51 et seq. E.g., Hopson v. Texaco, Inc., 383 U.S. 262, 86 S.Ct. 765, 766, 15 L.Ed.2d 740 (1966). The FELA, in turn, creates federal rights largely fashioned from the common law ... except as Congress has written into the Act different standards. Bailey v. Central Vermont Ry., 319 U.S. 350, 63 S.Ct. 1062, 1064, 87 L.Ed. 1444 (1943); see also Hall v. Minnesota Transfer Ry. Co., 322 F.Supp. 92, 94 (D.Minn.1971). Therefore, we must construe the FELA, and hence the Jones Act, consistent with the common law, except where the statute explicitly departs from the common law or has been judicially construed to do so. 29 There are, of course, important departures in the FELA from the common law. For example, the FELA abolishes the common law's fellow servant rule, Sinkler v. Missouri Pacific R.R., 356 U.S. 326, 78 S.Ct. 758, 762, 2 L.Ed.2d 799 (1958), eliminates the absolute defenses of contributory negligence, 45 U.S.C. Sec. 51, and assumption of risk, 45 U.S.C. Sec. 54, and incorporates a featherweight standard of causation, e.g., Webb v. Illinois Central R.R., 352 U.S. 512, 77 S.Ct. 451, 454, 1 L.Ed.2d 503 (1957). However, joint liability was the rule at common law, and we have not found any case holding that the FELA or the Jones Act has changed this. 30 As noted, contributory negligence is not a complete bar to recovery under the FELA (and the Jones Act), but merely reduces plaintiff's recovery. 31
32 Defendants argue that even if joint liability is proper as to maritime defendants or Jones Act defendants, it is not proper to cause a Jones Act defendant to be jointly liable with a maritime defendant. For this proposition defendants cite Seas Shipping Co. v. Sieracki, 328 U.S. 85, 66 S.Ct. 872, 90 L.Ed. 1099 (1946), a case in which the Supreme Court held that negligent defendants were not jointly liable with a tort-feasor whose liability arose from unseaworthiness because unseaworthiness rests upon an entirely different basis from negligence. Id., 66 S.Ct. at 875. The basis of Smith's liability is the Jones Act, while Lumar's liability arises under the general maritime law. But despite the fact that the respective obligations of Lumar and Smith toward Simeon arise from different sources, the obligation is the same: to avoid fault by acting reasonably. Sieracki is distinguishable from this case on grounds that unseaworthiness is not based on fault. 66 S.Ct. at 877; Cooper Stevedoring, 94 S.Ct. at 2179 (commenting that unseaworthiness defendant not jointly liable with negligent defendant because unseaworthiness does not require a showing of fault); see Usner v. Luckenbach Overseas Corp., 400 U.S. 494, 91 S.Ct. 514, 517, 27 L.Ed.2d 562 (1971); cf. Restatement (Second) of Torts Sec. 876 caveat (1979) (ALI takes no position on whether one acting in concert with another should be liable for acts of the other when the liability of either is based on strict liability). By contrast, both the Jones Act and maritime negligence are fault-based, and so we believe the Sieracki rule is inapplicable. 33 Defendants argue that because the Jones Act burden of causation is lighter than that applied to a maritime law negligence claim, e.g., Chisholm v. Sabine Towing & Transportation Co., 679 F.2d 60, 62 (5th Cir.1982) (citing cases), the Sieracki rule should apply to prevent the judgment in this case from being joint. Defendants do not cite any case suggesting that the different burden of causation applied to these two bases of recovery is sufficient to take the case out of the rule of joint liability. On the contrary, there is precedent for holding a Jones Act defendant jointly liable with a defendant whose negligence arises under state or general maritime law. See Joia v. Jo-Ja Service Corp., 817 F.2d 908, 915-18 (1st Cir.1987); Ebanks v. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co., 688 F.2d 716 (11th Cir.1982), cert. denied, 460 U.S. 1083, 103 S.Ct. 1774, 76 L.Ed.2d 346 (1983).
34 Accordingly, we sustain Simeon's claim on his cross-appeal that the district court erred by making the judgment in his favor against Smith and Lumar several only, with the liability of each such defendant limited to the percentage of Simeon's damages corresponding to the percentage of fault of that particular defendant (fifty-eight percent for Smith; thirty-two percent for Lumar). Smith and Lumar, therefore, are jointly and severally liable for ninety percent (one hundred percent, less Simeon's ten percent contributory negligence) of Simeon's damages. 35 Application of the rule of joint liability is somewhat complicated in the present case by reason of there being different pain and suffering awards in the actions against the different defendants, $600,000 (assuming that Simeon accepts the remittitur we order) in Simeon's jury-tried Jones Act case against Smith, and $450,000 in Simeon's bench-tried general maritime law case against Lumar. Simeon's total damages in his action against Smith are thus $706,487.50 ($600,000 pain and suffering, plus $10,000 future medical, plus $96,487.50 stipulated lost wages still unpaid, see note 2, supra, assuming Simeon accepts our remittiturs on the first two items); and his total damages in his action against Lumar are $556,487.50 ($450,000 pain and suffering, plus $10,000 future medical, plus $96,487.50 stipulated lost wages still unpaid, again assuming Simeon accepts our remittitur on the future medical). On these figures, Simeon will have judgment against Smith and Lumar, jointly and severally, for $500,838.75 (which is ninety percent--one hundred percent, less Simeon's ten percent negligence--of the $556,487.50 which represents Simeon's total damages that are common to his actions against both Smith and Lumar), and Simeon will additionally have judgment against Smith alone for the further sum of $135,000 (ninety percent of the $150,000 which represents the excess of Simeon's total damages in his action against Smith over his total damages in his action against Lumar). 12