Opinion ID: 417730
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Settlements and Joint Liability

Text: 45 The second complication, after introducing multiple tortfeasors, is the complication of a settling tortfeasor. Before inquiring into the problem of a settling joint tortfeasor we will first examine the issue of a settling single tortfeasor. Then we will look at a settling joint tortfeasor under both fairness and deterrence theories. 46 1. The Settling Tortfeasor.--Most lawsuits are settled. Fleming Foreword, 64 Calif.L.Rev. at 247. A settlement generally represents a contractual agreement between the settling parties that a dollar amount passing between them is a satisfactory resolution of the contingent liabilities between the parties. The philosophy of settlements does not encompass, save in infrequent cases, elements of logic or fairness. The dollar figure is not a precise mathematically derived figure; rather it represents a melange of factors including the parties' estimates of damages, the probability of recovery, costs of litigation, and preferences of the parties for avoiding uncertainty. See California Comment, 64 Calif.L.Rev. at 1275-82. 47 Most settlements are aleatory exercises. They are rarely perfectly prognosticated and they evolve almost as a literary who done it. When two parties settle in a bipolar lawsuit, no one would consider objecting to the settlement on the ground that the dollar figure reached unfairly overcompensates the plaintiff. What would have happened had the parties gone to trial is nothing more than a might have been. The might have beens were considered in reaching the settlement; the parties reached a bargain and they must live with it. 48 2. Settlements and Joint Tortfeasors.--The various techniques of handling settlement credits--pro tanto, pro rata, proportional--all have varying virtues and problems. The different techniques, however, all rest on different conceptions of joint liability. Under a theory of joint and several liability, the appropriate treatment would seem to be to provide a pro tanto credit. A plaintiff is entitled to one satisfaction, and the pro tanto credit ensures that. 49 The problems with a pro tanto credit arise from the fact that it provides no rational basis for allocating damages among the joint tortfeasors. See California Comment, 65 Calif.L.Rev. at 1273-74. Certainly, nothing prevents a collusive, low settlement with a less solvent tortfeasor, who might even be largely responsible for the harm, in exchange for that tortfeasor's assistance in prosecuting a claim against the less responsible, more solvent joint tortfeasors. See California Comment, 65 Calif.L.Rev. at 1280-81; Stanford Note, 18 Stan.L.Rev. at 490-91. This problem has been recognized in those proposals allowing pro tanto credits, and the response is usually to require that settlements be in good faith. See, e.g., Unif. Contribution Among Tortfeasors Act Sec. 4 (1955). 50 What we have found so far, however, is that joint and several liability does not mesh well with section 1983's goals of fairness and deterrence. Under both fairness and deterrence theories we found that fault or causation should be apportioned among the parties and each party should be responsible for a proportional share of the damages. In essence, this scheme of comparative fault/comparative causation separates joint torts into multiple single torts. A settlement by one tortfeasor thus should have no effect on the liability of another tortfeasor--each nonsettling tortfeasor will still be responsible for a proportional share of the damages. 4 51