Opinion ID: 417960
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Tort-based Indemnity

Text: 8 We have had occasion recently to summarize the prerequisites and limits of indemnification based on a tort theory. Tort-based indemnification, 2 9 [d]esigned to shift the whole loss upon the more guilty of the two tortfeasors ... has usually been available only where the party seeking it was merely passively negligent while the would-be indemnitor was actively at fault. 'Passive negligence' has been limited to instances in which the indemnitee was vicariously or technically liable. Where the party seeking indemnification was itself guilty of acts or omissions proximately causing the plaintiff's injury, tort indemnification is inappropriate. Araujo v. Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket Steamship Authority, 693 F.2d 1, 3 (1st Cir.1982) (citations omitted). 10 Where, as here, a would-be indemnitee seeks to recover an amount paid in satisfaction of a previous judgment, it is bound by all the findings without which the previous judgment could not have been rendered. Beetler v. Sales Affiliates, Inc., 431 F.2d 651, 654 (7th Cir.1970); Warren Petroleum Corp. v. J.W. Green Contractors, 417 F.2d 242, 245-46 (5th Cir.1969). In determining what findings were necessary to the judgment below, we must look to the entire record of that case. Nordeutsher Lloyd, Brennan v. Brady-Hamilton Stevedor Co., 195 F.Supp. 680, 684 (D.Or.1981). 11 The trial court concluded here that the jury verdict in favor of Kennedy necessarily implied a finding that there was oil on the ship's deck and that the spilled oil caused Kennedy's injuries independently of any active negligence on Maritime's part. But examination of the judge's instructions and the jury's special verdict leads us to a different conclusion. 12 The judge instructed that the shipowner's absolute, nondelegable duty to provide a seaworthy vessel requires that the deck must be a reasonably safe place to work, not unreasonably slippery .... [I]f you find the deck was unreasonably slippery, then you may find the vessel unseaworthy and the ship owner liable without any reference to the issue of negligence of the Defendant or any of its employees. Based on those instructions, the jury's special verdict found that the OVERSEAS EVELYN was not unseaworthy in a manner that was a proximate cause of injuries to Mr. Kennedy. 13 The jury did, however, find that Maritime was negligent in a manner that played a part in causing Kennedy's injuries. Examination of the court's instructions 3 leaves no doubt that in order to return, as it did, a verdict for plaintiff on the Jones Act negligence count, the jury must have found active negligence on Maritime's part within the meaning of the tort-based theory of indemnification. 14 The court instructed the jury that it should find negligence under the Jones Act count if [Maritime] committed some act or omission that played any part, no matter how small, in actually bringing about or causing injury to Mr. Kennedy. It indicated that a failure to furnish [plaintiff] with a reasonably safe place to work when his working conditions could have been made safe through the exercise of reasonable care would constitute negligence and specified, with respect to the condition of the deck: 15 Should you find that the area on the deck of the vessel where the Plaintiff was injured was slippery because of the negligence of the Defendant and that this condition caused Mr. Kennedy to be hurt, even though it caused it only in small part, you should find that the Defendant was negligent. 16 The court also indicated, making direct reference to the boatswain and the chief mate, that Maritime was responsible for any negligence on the part of its employees. 17 On the basis of the court's instruction and the evidence in the record the jury could have found Jones Act negligence in any of four ways. It could have found: (1) that the deck was slippery because of Maritime's negligence, either in allowing the oil to spill in large quantities from the connecting hose or in failing adequately to clean up that spill; and that the deck's slippery condition caused Kennedy's injuries in part though his injuries were not sufficiently a direct result of the slippery condition to find unseaworthiness; 4 (2) that the chief mate or other supervisory Maritime employees were negligent in ordering Kennedy back to work immediately after applying the Absorb-N-Dry; (3) that the boatswain was negligent in handling the connecting hose, allowing it to recoil and force Kennedy off-balance; or (4) that Maritime failed through its supervisory employees adequately to warn Kennedy of the dangers of working on the slippery deck after the Absorb-N-Dry had been applied. 18 Though the court's instructions to the jury emphasized the liberal standard of Jones Act negligence and its minimal causation requirement--played any part, no matter how small, in bringing about or actually causing the injury or damage--nothing in the court's instruction on the Jones Act count indicated that Maritime was strictly liable for Kennedy's safety. The jury's finding of negligence can only be taken to indicate its judgment that Kennedy's injuries resulted, at least in part, from acts or omissions on the part of Maritime. Such negligence is active negligence and precludes indemnity under a tort theory. See Araujo, supra; Loose v. Offshore Navigation, Inc., 670 F.2d 493, 499-500 (5th Cir.1982).