Opinion ID: 1505643
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Heading: Apportioning Liability Under Existing Texas Law

Text: In Shamrock Fuel & Oil Sales Co. v. Tunks, 416 S.W.2d 779 (Tex.1967), and McKisson v. Sales Affiliates, Inc., 416 S.W.2d 787 (Tex.1967), this court adopted section 402A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts in recognizing a cause of action based on strict products liability. We held that a plaintiff's contributory negligence was no defense to this cause of action. We based this holding on comment n of section 402A, which states, Contributory negligence of the plaintiff is not a defense when such negligence consists merely in a failure to discover the defect in a product or guard against its existence. On the other hand the form of contributory negligence which consists in voluntarily and unreasonably proceeding to encounter a known danger, and commonly passes under the name of assumption of risk, is a defense under this Section as in other cases of strict liability. In Henderson v. Ford Motor Co., 519 S.W.2d 87 (Tex.1974), we reaffirmed our adherence to comment n, stating, Assumption of risk is the defense; contributory negligence or failure to act reasonably is not. Id. at 91; see also Rourke v. Garza, 530 S.W.2d 794, 800 (Tex.1975). In General Motors Corp. v. Hopkins, 548 S.W.2d 344 (Tex.1977), however, we recognized that a manufacturer is not an insurer and should not be required to pay for all of the damages suffered by a product user who contributed to the cause of his harm by unforeseeable handling of the product. Id. at 351. Thus, for cases involving unforeseeable product misuse, we adopted a scheme of comparative causation under which a manufacturer's liability is limited to the proportionate harm caused by its product. Id. at 352. Under present Texas law, then, the only defenses to a strict product liability action are the absolute defense of assumption of the risk and the comparative defense of unforeseeable product misuse. By contrast, in product liability actions based on negligence and breach of warranty, these defenses are subsumed within contributory negligence, which operates as a comparative defense. See Signal Oil & Gas Co. v. Universal Oil Products, 572 S.W.2d 320 (Tex.1978); Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat. Ann. art. 2212a, § 1. The procedural problems generated by this state of the substantive law are apparent. Pope & Lowerre, The State of the Special Verdict 1979, 11 St. Mary's L.J. 47, 48 (1979). In Texas, a plaintiff can predicate a product liability action on one or more of at least three theories of recovery: (1) strict liability under § 402A, (2) breach of warranty under the U.C.C., and (3) negligence. If either breach of warranty or negligence is alleged in addition to strict liability, the product supplier is entitled to submit three defensive issues, namely, contributory negligence, assumption of the risk, and misuse. In addition, he may also be entitled to submission of both a comparative negligence issue and a comparative causation (product misuse) issue. If there were any qualitative difference between contributory negligence, on the one hand, and assumed risk and misuse, on the other, this procedural complexity might be justified. Assumed risk and unforeseeable misuse, however, are nothing more than extreme variants of contributory negligence. To varying degrees, all three defenses focus on the reasonableness of a plaintiff's conduct. Boatland of Houston, Inc. v. Bailey, 609 S.W.2d 743, 750-51 (Tex.1980) (Pope, J., concurring); see also, e.g., Farley v. M M Cattle Co., 529 S.W.2d 751, 758 (Tex.1975). A similar problem has confronted courts attempting to apportion joint liability among negligent and strictly liable tortfeasors. Texas has two statutes that allow contribution among tortfeasors. Article 2212a provides for comparative contribution among joint tortfeasors in negligence cases according to their respective percentages of fault. Article 2212, on the other hand, mandates pro rata contribution from co-tortfeasors in other tort actions. In General Motors Corp. v. Simmons, 558 S.W.2d 855 (Tex.1977), we stated that article 2212a is inapplicable to cases in which a strict liability claim is asserted against at least one defendant. We concluded that strict liability under § 402A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts is not based on negligence and that article 2212 governs contribution among joint tortfeasors when one of them is strictly liable. We also observed, however, that the apparent failure of articles 2212 and 2212a to fairly and sensibly compare causation in such situations promised to engender serious problems in future products liability cases. For this reason, we invited legislative study and corrective action. In recent years, products liability litigation has spawned so many intractable problems of loss allocation between negligent plaintiffs and negligent and strictly liable defendants that our brief expression of concern in Simmons now seems understated. See, e.g., Wenzel v. Rollins Motor Company, 598 S.W.2d 895 (Tex.Civ.App. El Paso 1980, writ ref'd n.r.e.); Bell Helicopter v. Bradshaw, 594 S.W.2d 519 (Tex. Civ.App.Corpus Christi 1979, writ ref'd n.r.e.); Avery v. Maremont Corp., 628 F.2d 441 (5th Cir.1980) (applying Texas law); Foster v. Ford Motor Company, 616 F.2d 1304 (5th Cir.1980) (applying Texas law). Simmons itself has prevented apportionment of liability in at least one case. See Pyramid Derrick & Equipment Co. v. Mason, 617 S.W.2d 727, 728-29 (Tex.Civ.App. Beaumont 1981, writ ref'd n.r.e.). Courts have had to wrestle with various problematic indemnity doctrines and to recognize shadowy distinctions between defenses in products cases and negligence cases. Thus, manufacturers have often borne accident costs generated in part by the substandard conduct of the plaintiff or some third party. Boatland of Houston, Inc. v. Bailey, 609 S.W.2d at 750, 751 (Pope, J., concurring). Product liability suits which are not based on negligence are treated anomalously because the system of allocation provided in Art. 2212a does not apply, and there is no other comprehensive system for loss allocation under existing law. This court has previously attempted to ameliorate the harsh and inequitable consequences stemming from this anomalous treatment of loss allocation in products liability actions. Thus, instead of recognizing all or nothing issues in product misuse and breach of implied warranty cases, we created comparative apportionment schemes. See General Motors Corp. v. Hopkins, 548 S.W.2d at 351-52 (pure comparative causation); Signal Oil & Gas Co. v. Universal Oil Products, 572 S.W.2d at 329 (pure comparative negligence). Nevertheless, our limited efforts in Hopkins and Signal Oil, though positive, have not substantially alleviated the intolerable confusion, unmanageability, and inherent unfairness in this area of Texas products law. See Boatland of Houston, Inc. v. Bailey, 609 S.W.2d at 751 (Pope, J., concurring). As a result, we have been implored repeatedly to recognize some form of comparative fault in strict products liability actions. See Edgar, Products Liability in Texas, 11 Tex.Tech L.Rev. 23, 50 (1979); Sales, Contribution and Indemnity Between Negligent and Strictly Liable Tortfeasors, 12 St. Mary's L.J. 323, 363-65 (1980); Special Project, Texas Tort Law in Transition, 57 Texas L.Rev. 381, 491-95 (1979). This case presents us with the opportunity to consider whether we can or should adopt such a system.