Opinion ID: 2284379
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Reduction of the Jury Verdict

Text: The trial judge reduced Ms. Thompson's $4.5 million jury verdict pro tanto by $1.38 million to reflect the fact that the other two alleged tortfeasorsthe anesthesiologist, Dr. Walker, and the nurse-anesthetist, Nurse Adlandhad agreed to settle Ms. Thompson's claims for that amount midway through trial. WHC asserts that the judge instead should have reduced the verdict on a pro rata basis according to the number of settling versus non-settling defendants, here by two-thirds. [10] We therefore must revisit a distinction that has proved vexing in prior decisions. Both parties to this appeal acknowledge the settled rule that a pro rata reduction is only appropriate in circumstances where the settling defendants are determined to be tortfeasors otherwise liable. See Martello v. Hawley, 112 U.S.App.D.C. 129, 132, 300 F.2d 721, 724 (1962). In the absence of a determination of the settling defendants' liability vel non, both agree the credit is pro tanto. See Crooks v. Williams, 508 A.2d 912, 915 (D.C.1986); Snowden v. District of Columbia Transit Sys., 147 U.S. App.D.C. 204, 205-06, 454 F.2d 1047, 1048-49 (1971). The parties differ, however, on whether WHC's failure to request a finding of liability of the settling defendants or to file a cross-claim for contribution against any of them defeated its claim for a pro rata reduction. They also disagree, less vigorously, on whether that finding must be made by the jury rather than by the court. In keeping with the Martello credit's origin as a substitute for a claim for contribution against a negligent codefendant, we agree with plaintiffs that, although the trial court may resolve the issue of the settling defendant's negligence in connection with a cross-claim for contribution, WHC's failure to keep that issue in the case by asserting a claim for contributioneither through a cross-claim or by a special jury verdict requestprecludes application of a pro rata credit. In Martello, supra, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held: [I]n the factual circumstances of this case[,] ... when settlement is made with one joint tort-feasor and later a verdict is obtained against the other, and the jury finds that the settling tort-feasor should contribute, then the verdict should be credited with one-half its total amount and the defendant tort-feasor should be required to pay only the remaining balance, namely, one-half the total original verdict. 112 U.S.App.D.C. at 132, 300 F.2d at 724. The factual circumstances of Martello included these: the non-settling defendant by third-party complaint ... asked judgment against Caughman [the settling tort-feasor] `for all or a contributable portion of any judgment rendered against them'; the jury found in favor of the Martellos against Caughman for contribution; and the parties stipulated that the amount of contribution should be set by the court. Id. at 130, 300 F.2d at 722. Indeed, as originally conceived, the Martello pro rata credit was closely linked with a non-settling defendant's right to contribution, and accommodated interests not readily susceptible of reconciliation with each other, id. at 131, 300 F.2d at 723: Contribution is a right existing among joint tort-feasors based upon the theory that, as each tort-feasor was at fault in bringing about the injury to the innocent party, then in justice each tort-feasor should share his part in the burden of making the injured party whole again. Moreover, as there is no doctrine of comparative negligence in the District of Columbia, there is much to be said for the proposition that this burden should be shared equally by those at fault. However, superimposed upon this theoretically equitable formula is the rule that an injured plaintiff may settle with one or more of the negligent tort-feasors without thereby surrendering the right to recover against the others. Id. Anything but a pro rata reduction in such circumstances, the court reasoned, would allow a settlement to defeat the non-settling joint tortfeasor's right to recover a full measure of contribution, id., which otherwise could not be vindicated without undermining the policy of according protective finality to out-of-court settlements by tort-feasors. Id. at 130, 300 F.2d at 722. In Snowden v. District of Columbia Transit Sys., supra , the Circuit Court refused to apply a pro rata credit in circumstances where the jury expressly found the settling defendant not liable, both on the principal claim and on her codefendant's claim for contribution. (The jury was not informed of the settlement, and the case proceeded as if it had not occurred). The court reasoned, however, that a pro tanto credit was appropriate because the plaintiff had suffered but one injury, and was not entitled to recover more than full satisfaction. In rejecting the plaintiff's argument that the rule barring contribution where there is no finding of joint liability in tort preclude[s] a credit where liability is not joint (emphasis in original), the court emphasized fundamental difference between the non-settling defendant's right to contribution and the pro tanto credit it recognized which ensured that the plaintiff received no more than full satisfaction. 147 U.S.App.D.C. at 206 & n. 6, 454 F.2d at 1049 & n. 6. In Hall v. General Motors Corp., 207 U.S.App.D.C. 350, 647 F.2d 175 (1980), the court rejected a claim by a non-settling defendant to a Martello credit, upholding the trial court's application of a pro tanto reduction. Unlike Snowden, where the plaintiff's claim and the non-settling defendant's cross-claim for contribution against the settling defendant were put to the jury as if the settlement had not occurred, in Hall, after a pretrial settlement, the plaintiff's claim against the settling defendant was dismissed with prejudice, as was the settling defendant's cross-claim for indemnification against General Motors. Significantly, General Motors had filed no cross-claim for contribution of its own against the settling defendant. The court emphasized the failure of the non-settling defendant to cross-claim for contribution, and the fact that the dismissal of the principal claim against the settling defendant left his joint liability an open question: We conclude that GM received the appropriate credit in this action and is not entitled to more. First, it is not at all clear that the settlement stripped GM of a right to contribution which it otherwise would have had. Second, no District of Columbia case recognizes a right to a pro rata (50%) reduction of a plaintiff's judgment against a nonsettling defendant when a settling defendant's liability vel non has not been determined. Finally, if GM wished to safeguard any legitimate claim it might have to lessen the burden of a plaintiffs' burden, a cross-claim against Larry Buick was available to it. Id. at 358-59, 647 F.2d at 183-84. In Crooks v. Williams, supra , this court cited Hall with approval in upholding a pro tanto credit where the defendant hospital and the plaintiff had settled before trial and a medical malpractice claim proceeded against a doctor. The court found no error in the refusal of a pro rata credit, concluding that [w]here, as here, the settling defendant's liability vel non has not been determined, the granting of a pro tanto credit is proper. 508 A.2d at 915. In Otis Elevator Co. v. Henderson, 514 A.2d 784 (D.C.1986), the court made quite clear that part of the predicate for a Martello credit was the non-settling defendant's assertion of a cross-claim for contribution against the settling defendant. The court stated the rule as follows: A judgment is to be reduced by half where the plaintiff sues purported joint tortfeasors and one settles, but remains a party to the action because one of the other defendants has submitted a cross-claim for contribution, and the settling tortfeasor is found by the jury to have been negligent. Id. at 786 (emphasis added). The court cited a footnote in Kassman v. American Univ., 178 U.S.App.D.C. 263, 267 n. 24, 546 F.2d 1029, 1033 n. 24 (1976), encapsulating the rationale for the pro rata credit: pro rata reductions [are] permissible only where one tortfeasor would be able to compel contribution, but for the plaintiff's settlement with another tortfeasor. Hence, the court concluded that only a pro tanto credit was appropriate because Otis never cross-claimed against [U.S.] Food's for contribution, and neither jury nor judge considered whether or not Food's was liable for Henderson's injuries. Id. at 786. Against this background of the origins and purposes of a Martello credit, we view a pro rata credit as a substitute for the non-settling defendant's actual claim for contribution that persists after the dismissal of the principal claim against a settling defendantand not simply as an incident of the existence of an abstract right to contribution never asserted. Although a finding of joint liability is central, because [a] claim for contribution will lie only if the defendant is liable, concurrently with the original defendant, to the plaintiff in the original suit, Group Health Ass'n v. District of Columbia General Hosp., 540 A.2d 1104, 1106 (D.C.1988), Hall and Otis emphasize the non-settling defendant's assertion of the settling defendants' negligence and of its right to contribution before the jury returns a verdict. Here, WHC had many opportunities to do so, but never raised the question of the other defendants' liability until it filed post-trial motions seeking a Martello credit. [11] WHC reasonably could have been expected to safeguard any legitimate claim it might have to lessen the burden of a plaintiff's verdict, Hall, supra, 207 U.S.App.D.C. at 359, 647 F.2d at 184, by asserting a cross-claim for contribution, as did the non-settling defendants in Martello, or an equivalent request for a determination by the jury of the settling defendants' negligence. Unlike a typical claim for contribution among joint tortfeasors, the Martello credit's consequences are visited upon the plaintiff. As the court noted in Lamphier v. Washington Hosp. Center, 524 A.2d 729 (D.C.1987), to protect the finality of out-of-court settlements, the injured party in settling with one tortfeasor effectively bears the burden that otherwise would fall upon the settling tortfeasor to make contribution.... Id. at 733. Allowance of a Martello credit in circumstances where the non-settling defendant has not made a claim for contribution leads a plaintiff who has settled with certain defendants to believe issues of their liability have been removed from the case, only to find these questions revived after a verdict has been returned. Had WHC asserted that Dr. Walker and Nurse Adland were negligent, the record likely would have developed quite differently than it did, particularly because plaintiffs were obliged under the settlement agreement to hold the settling defendants harmless against any claim for contribution or indemnity by WHC. See note 11, supra. Plaintiffs would have had every incentive to argue that Walker and Adland did not deviate from the standard of care. [12] While the plaintiff in this situation risks losing credibility in the jury's eyeshaving asserted before settlement that all defendants were liable, only to shift theories and endeavor to lay all fault at the feet of the remaining defendantthis problem is a function of the timing of the settlement, a matter principally within the control of the defendants, who have had the benefit of observing the strength of the plaintiffs' case against them. Whether the settlement occurs before trial or during it, a plaintiff facing possible application of a Martello credit should have fair notice that the non-settling defendant plans to seek a pro rata reduction of the verdict on the ground that his settling counterparts were negligent, and an opportunity to build a rebuttal case. See Washington Healthcare Corp. v. Barrow, 531 A.2d 226, 230 (D.C.1987) (non-settling defendant had full opportunity and strong motivation to develop the record regarding [settling defendant's] role, and did so). The plaintiffs here were denied that notice and opportunity. [13] WHC further argues that the absence of either findings on the settling defendants' liability or an opportunity by plaintiffs to fully litigate that issue is harmless because the facts were such that those defendants would be liable as a matter of law. In Barrow, supra, the court excused the trial court's failure to make findings on the issue of a settling defendant doctor's liability because the issue could be resolved essentially as a matter of law. 531 A.2d at 230. We found no record evidence to suggest that the doctor ever received the report containing information he was alleged to have negligently failed to furnish the injured patient. Relying on this part of Barrow, WHC argues that a finding of negligence against the hospital necessarily encompassed a finding of negligence against the attending anesthesiologist and the nurse who inserted the tube. That is not so. First, both Walker and Adland expressly denied liability in the settlement agreement. See Otis, supra, 514 A.2d at 786. More importantly, Dr. Steen, plaintiffs' own expert, testified on cross-examination that an improper intubation was so common that it might not be a violation of the standard of care. According to Dr. Steen, even when the doctor and nurse do everything the standard of care requires in the way of physical examination to detect an esophageal intubation (listening to breathing sounds, checking the tube for vapor, etc.), competent professionals can be tricked, and hence mechanical monitors are necessary. If it credited plaintiffs' expert, the jury could have found the hospital negligent without finding Dr. Walker or Nurse Adland negligent. Finally, we reject WHC's judicial estoppel argument that the plaintiffs, having asserted in their pleadings that all defendants were negligent, should not be heard on appeal to deny the negligence of the settling defendants. In light of the requirement of our cases that the settling defendants' liability be judicially established, Lamphier, supra, 524 A.2d at 733 & n. 5, we decline to hold that allegations in pleadings can replace findings of fact for purposes of applying a credit against the verdict intended to substitute for the nonsettling defendant's contribution claim. [14] Offering as support little more than considerations of equity, WHC asserts that even if the court correctly applied a pro tanto rather than a pro rata credit, the verdict should have been reduced by the full $2 million present value of the settlementreflecting amounts given in settlement of the claims of Alma Washington, Devin Michelle Thompson, and Toyia Greene, as opposed to the amount attributable only to Ms. Thompson's claims. The trial judge refused to aggregate the amounts received in settlement of individual claims of the other plaintiffs to reduce the verdict in favor of LaVerne Thompson, and reduced the verdict only by the $1.328 million she received in settlement of her individual claims. The rationale behind the pro tanto credit, as explained earlier, is to ensure that the plaintiff receives no more than the loss actually suffered for her claim. Snowden, supra, 147 U.S.App.D.C. at 205-06, 454 F.2d at 1048-49. This purpose would not be served by reducing the verdict in favor of one plaintiff to reflect amounts received by others in settlement of their claims. We recognize the risk, to which WHC points, that in a case such as this plaintiffs may attempt to shield portions of a settlement from an eventual pro tanto credit by shifting to the settlement of one plaintiff amounts properly attributable to the injuries of another. The trial judge, however, addressed this issue squarely, finding that despite the binding authority of Pleasant, supra note 1, the claims on behalf of Alma Washington, Toyia Green and Devin Thompson were brought in good faith and similarly that there was no evidence that the settling defendants were not acting in good faith and with a genuine interest to protect themselves from future claims by these plaintiffs that might be vindicated through the appellate process.... The judge did not err in refusing to credit WHC for the amounts that settled claims of plaintiffs other than LaVerne Thompson. [15] Affirmed.