Opinion ID: 1486394
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Maryland Heights and the Principle of Fairness

Text: I believe that our decision in Maryland Heights failed to appreciate the full implications of the fundamental principle articulated in Whitehead and Kales , that one is not liable for damage which he did not negligently cause. The effect of Maryland Heights was to require the non-employer defendant to bear 100% of the employee's loss, regardless of the non-employee defendant's proportion of fault. The Court in Maryland Heights relied on Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Co. v. Smith, 359 So.2d 427, 429-30 (Fla.1978) for its view of the effect of the statutory immunity of the employer under the workmen's compensation provisions. It is not clear that the Florida court's treatment of the question should be persuasive in Missouri after Whitehead and Kales . Whitehead and Kales created a system of relative fault that applies regardless of whether the issue is presented by a claim for contribution or by a claim for indemnity. Florida, however, rejects indemnity between joint tortfeasors and rejects weighing the relative fault of tortfeasors on a claim for indemnity. Houdaille Industries, Inc. v. Edwards, 374 So.2d 490 (Fla.1979). [8] The question whether the employer's fault should be determined in order to fix the non-employer defendant's measure of liability must be answered in the light of the principles laid down in Whitehead and Kales . The court in Seaboard pointed out that the employer's liability to pay workmen's compensation benefits replaces tort liability of the employer and substitutes for the employer's common law liability for damages. See Maryland Heights, 588 S.W.2d at 491, quoting Seaboard, 359 So.2d at 429-30. It is precisely because workmen's compensation benefits substitute for the employer's common law liability that the employee should not be permitted to recover 100% of his damages from the non-employer whose negligence concurred with that of the employer to cause the employee's injury. Such a result clearly violates the principle that one tortfeasor is ultimately liable only for the amount of damages that he caused. The employer, through the payment of workmen's compensation benefits, has borne his proportionate share of liability for the employee's injury. That proportion should not be paid to the employee a second time by the non-employer tortfeasor. The policy against multiple recovery by injured employees eligible for workmen's compensation benefits is set by statute. § 287.150, RSMo 1978. Certainly that policy could be given effect and the system rendered more efficient, if the non-employer defendant is held liable only for the share of the damages that he caused to the employee. In keeping with the principle of fairness, I would hold that the employer is a person in whose absence complete relief cannot be accorded among those already parties, and hence the employer should be joined in the action under our Rule 52.04(a), (b). See Maryland Heights, 588 S.W.2d 489, 492 (Mo. banc 1979) (Donnelly, J., dissenting). The proportion of the employee-plaintiff's injury that was caused by the employer's negligence should be determined by the jury, so that the judgment entered against the non-employer defendant will reflect only that portion of damages for which the non-employer defendant was responsible. Consequently, I believe the trial court's order granting respondent Chemlime's motion for judgment on the pleadings was in error, and that it should be reversed and the case remanded for further proceedings consistent with the rule requiring apportionment of liability in direct relation to the degree of fault.