Court Opinion

ID: 9673337
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:10:20.057615+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:21.651102
License: Public Domain

UHLENHOPP, Justice
(concurring in part, dissenting in part).
I concur in the majority opinion except for (1) dismissal of defendant Guiter from the case and (2) apportionment of percentages of fault among the parties, as to which I dissent.
I. The manufacturer of the implement equipped it with two safety devices: protective bars around the auger plus a safety shield. I think a jury could reasonably find that Guiter should have told Nichols’ employer about the missing safety shield. With respect to superior knowledge, the difference between Guiter on the one hand and Nichols and his employer on the other is that Guiter knew that the machine had come equipped with both the bars and the shield and that the shield had been removed. But nothing appears to indicate that Nichols and his employer had knowledge of the safety shield, and Guiter did not warn or inform about its removal. I would thus leave Guiter in the case as to that specification. He should have a new trial, however, because the trial court should not have submitted the specification against him of altering the auger. When Guiter had the auger in his possession with the shield removed, no injuries occurred. His causal negligence, if any, was in failing to warn about the removal of the shield when he sold the auger to Nichols’ employer. I would thus grant a new trial to both Van Zetten and Guiter as to both the issues of the fault of each of them and their respective percentages of fault, if any.
II. As to apportionment of fault among all the parties found at fault, with the advent of comparative negligence we should try to preserve as many findings in prior verdicts as we can — findings which can be readily separated from the entire case. Warshany v. Supermarkets General Corp., 161 N.J.Super. 515, 523, 391 A.2d *4031271, 1275 (1978) (retention of findings as to issues “which can be readily separated from the entire case”)- We should take care, however, that we do not swing the pendulum from the traditional full retrial to the other extreme. Schmatt v. Arenz, 176 N.W.2d 771, 775 (Iowa 1970).
In this case the finding of the first jury as to Nichols’ total damage and the finding as to fault on the part of Nichols and of Westfield can be readily separated from the case, and those issues need not be retried. But the apportionment of the percentages of fault among the parties found at fault cannot be accepted from the first trial because Van Zetten and Guiter are entitled to have their percentages of fault found anew under correct instructions and because the respective percentages of fault of all the parties at fault are interdependent. Thus I would not start the second trial with a specified percentage of fault assigned to any party.
More concretely, the apportionment problem comes down to this. Looking at the whole picture but under incorrect instructions as to Van Zetten and Guiter, the first jury apportioned 60% of the fault to Nichols, 15% to Westfield, 15% to Van Zetten, and 10% to Guiter. Looking at the whole picture on retrial of the allegations against Van Zetten and Guiter, under correct instructions, the second jury may wish to raise or lower the percentages of fault of those two defendants or find no fault at all as to them or one of them. It cannot do so, however, without changing the percentages of some or all of the other parties (possibly including Nichols’ percentage), so that altogether the percentages come to 100%. Thus all the percentages should be open to reapportionment on retrial. The majority’s holding that the percentages from the first trial shall not be preclusive in a third trial, relating to contribution, implicitly recognizes that the percentages from the first trial cannot be accepted. The nub of this question is that in the present case the issues as to the several parties’ fault are independent but the issues as to their respective percentages of fault are interdependent.
III. Hence I would hold that on retrial Nichols’ total damages are to be taken as $500,000 and Nichols and Westfield are to be taken as at fault in some percentages; and the following issues are to be decided by the jury: whether Van Zetten and Gui-ter were respectively at fault in some percentages, and the respective percentages of fault of all the parties who were at fault, to a total of 100%.
HARRIS and LARSON, JJ., join in this concurrence and dissent.