Court Opinion

ID: 9848023
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:11:30.249042+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:55.485923
License: Public Domain

*446Deen, Judge,
concurring in the judgment only. It is well established that where a plaintiff sues only one of two joint and several tortfeasors, the defendant may implead the other alleged tortfeasor in order to enforce his claim for contribution, prior to judgment and prior to trial. F. H. Ross & Co. v. White, 224 Ga. 324 (161 SE2d 857); Gosser v. Diplomat Restaurant, 125 Ga. App. 620 (188 SE2d 412); Code Ann. § 81A-114. This of course carries the implication that any dissatisfied party may appeal at the proper time from rulings adversely affecting it, including rulings which would otherwise adversely affect its right of contribution against the other tortfeasor in the event of an adverse final judgment.
The difference between such cases and the present one is that here the plaintiff elected to sue both defendants jointly so that there was no need for a third party action to get all alleged tortfeasors before the court. We are here holding that in such a case Defendant One cannot complain if a summary judgment is granted to Defendant Two. But what happens if Defendant One receives an adverse verdict and judgment on trial and thereafter seeks contribution? "[W]hen an impleaded joint tortfeasor is dismissed from an action in which no issue of contribution was raised between the defendant and the third party, the judgment is not res judicata on the issue of contribution between the defendant and a third party.” 3 Moore’s Federal Practice (2d Ed.) p. 476, citing Bakula v. Schwab, 167 Wis. 546 (168 NW 378). The defendant cannot be bound by any judgment from which he is denied an appeal. No res judicata could be pleaded if, after paying the judgment, he elected to sue Defendant Two. To this extent we seem to have subverted the purpose of the Civil Practice Act to try the whole case at one time, although I would agree that if so the remedy would lie with the legislature and not this court.
I am inclined to think however that the legislature may have in fact taken care of the situation when in Ga. L. 1972, p. 132, it amended the statute on contribution by *447providing that "without the necessity of being charged by suit or judgment, the right of contribution . . . shall continue unabated,” and that this statute accelerates the right of action in cases of joint defendants just as Code Ann. § 81A-114 does in third-party actions. Since, however, the amendment is not before us and the statement in the majority opinion (p. 443) that it would not have this effect is obiter, I should like to reserve judgment on this issue.