Court Opinion

ID: 9564489
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:01:45.023848+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:27.680403
License: Public Domain

CARDINE, Justice, Retired,
dissenting.
The majority of the court holds that a defendant need not answer plaintiffs complaint in a negligence case and no detriment results from entry of default if one other defendant has answered. The holding is contrary to law, reason, and long-established practice, and I must dissent.
A multi-vehicle accident occurred May 29, 1992, on U.S. Highway 310. McGarvin was the main contractor on a road construction project. Construction safety and signs responsibility at the site had been subcontracted to S & L Industrial.
Welden was the lead car in a group of three that approached the work site and stopped as directed by the flag girl. A fourth car, driven by Bertha Hunter, did not stop and rammed the car in front of her. A chain-reaction accident occurred as each car successively slammed into the one in front.
The Weldens, on January 20, 1993, filed a negligence action against McGarvin and Mrs. Hunter’s estate (she died of unrelated causes after the accident). Weldens alleged neck and back injuries. MeGarvin’s answer was due on February 18. McGarvin neglected to answer timely, and on March 3 the clerk of court entered default against McGarvin. On March 19, McGarvin filed a motion to set aside the entry of default. The motion was denied. McGarvin filed a petition for review challenging that decision, and this court denied the petition.
The district court entered an order on October 26, 1993, prohibiting McGarvin from participation in the discovery process and at trial on issues of liability, proximate cause, and allocation of fault, but allowed McGarvin to defend upon the issue of damages. *1318McGarvin’s petition for review challenges the order of prohibition.
The court in its opinion states as follows: Our analysis of the form in which the legislature has cast our comparative negligence statute leads to the conclusion that the issue of fault, as distinguished from liabilitg, is no longer separable from the issue of damages. The two are intertwined to the extent that one cannot defend on the issue of damages without being permitted to participate with respect to the issue of fault. The defendant in default must be permitted to participate in proceedings which address the issue of relative fault because it is a significant factor in any damage award.
Maj. op. at 1 (emphasis added). The conclusion is unsupported by authority and is simply incorrect. The premise of the court’s opinion is twofold:
(a) that fault is distinguished (different) from liability, and
(b) that our comparative negligence statute does not permit trial of fault separate from damages.
Contrary to premise (a), the term fault cannot be distinguished from liability but is included within the term liability. Thus, a party at fault in a personal injury case is liable for the damages caused.
The word liability includes fault. It is a broad legal term referred to as “of the most comprehensive significance, including almost every character of hazard or responsibility, absolute, contingent, or likely.” It includes “any kind of debt or liability, either absolute or contingent, express or implied,” “every land of legal obligation, responsibility, or duty.” Black’s Law Dictionary (6th ed. 1990). The word fault is defined as “[njegli-gence; an error or defect of judgment or of conduct.” Id. Negligence which proximately causes damage is fault and is a legal obligation to pay for such damage. The legal obligation to pay is, by definition, liability. Liability is a broad term that includes fault. Fault, a narrow term describing an obligation arising out of negligence, is included within liability and, in the context of a personal injury claim (this case), is not distinguishable at all.
Again, contrary to the court’s asserted premise in paragraph (b) above, the legislature has not cast our comparative negligence statute in a form that fault and damages are no longer separable, but rather, in the clearest terms, keeps fault separable from damages. Thus, W.S. l-l-109(b) (1988) provides for the use of separate special verdicts for the determination of: (a) the total amount of damages and (b) the percentage of fault, stating as follows:
(b) The court may, and when requested by any party shall:
(i) If a jury trial:
(A) Direct the jury to find separate special verdicts determining the total amount of damages and the percentage of fault attributable to each actor whether or not a party[.]
The statute requires that the court shall, when requested by a party, find separate special verdicts. In this case the plaintiff is not only requesting but demanding separate verdicts to allow McGarvin to defend damages only. Fault and liability, as those terms apply to a tort, personal injury action and are used in our comparative negligence statute, are synonymous. Our comparative negligence statute does not see fault and damages as inseparably intertwined, but intends that the court and jury keep fault and damages totally separate and never intertwined.
The recommended verdict form in our Wyoming Pattern Jury Instructions, drafted to meet the provisions of the statute and conform to the practice in every Wyoming district court, is as follows:
VERDICT
We, the jury, present the following answers to the questions submitted by the court:
1. Considering all of the fault at one hundred percent, what percentage of the total fault is attributable to each of the following persons?
_ (Plaintiff) .(0% to 100%) _
_ (Defendant) ... (0% to 100%) _
_(Defendant) ... (0% to 100%) _
[Add spaces for codefendants and actors.]
Total 100%
*13192. Without considering the percentage of fault found in question one, what total amount of damages do you find was sustained by
_ (Plaintiff).$-
Wyoming Pattern Jury Instructions (1993 Rev.) wherein the committee expressed “thanks to Judge Rogers and Judge Lehman for their thoughts and comments on certain instructions.”
W.S. 1-1-109 was amended in 1994, again demonstrating legislative intent to maintain the separate nature of fault and damages by first defining fault as creating a liability arising out of negligence and proximate cause, as follows:
“Fault” includes acts or omissions, determined to be a proximate cause of death or injury to person or property, that are in any measure negligent ⅜ ⅜ *
and then by providing that the jury
determine the total amount of damages sustained by the claimant without regard to the percentage of fault attributed to the claimant, and the percentage of fault attributable to each actor[.]
The plain meaning- — the only meaning that can be derived from the above statutes and its predecessor — is that fault and damages are separable; that they are not inextricably intertwined; that they are separable, separate, and must be kept separate by the court and jury.
In Vanasse v. Ramsay, 847 P.2d 993, 996—97 (Wyo.1993) (quoting Spitzer v. Spitzer, 777 P.2d 587, 592 (Wyo.1989)), we said that entry of default “forecloses the party found to be in default from making any further defense or assertion with respect to liability” but left open for contest the amount of damages, if any, incurred. By definition, and as our legislature has stated, negligence that is the proximate cause of an accident equals fault, and fault is included in the broad term liability. In this case default was entered in accordance with W.R.C.P. 55. Fault is included within the term liability, but the defaulting party here is allowed to defend the liability (fault) issue contrary to Vanasse. If this court is going to overturn Vanasse, it should so state in clear and unequivocal language.
No case has been found that directly deals with the question here presented. Perhaps that would indicate that no one has heretofore even seriously suggested that any court would allow a defendant in default to defend fault contrary to the language of decided cases (see the string citation on page 7 of the majority opinion).
I would affirm the order of the trial judge prohibiting the defendant in default from defending the issue of fault-liability, but permitting full defense of the issue of damages, if any. The defaulting defendant would appear on the verdict form much in the same posture as a non-party. Other defendants not in default could argue liability and might claim that the defaulting defendant was liable for the total damage. That is the detriment resulting from default. It is better than what would occur if McGarvin as the only defendant were 100 percent liable for the total damage of plaintiff. In this scenario, defendant McGarvin will probably pay less than all of plaintiffs damages, and perhaps nothing. That is a real advantage to a defaulting defendant in a multi-party case and enough of a benefit in this kind of ease. In the above suggested disposition, W.R.C.P. 55 and W.S. 1-1-109 may be read together and harmonized so as to endow both with a full measure of meaning in these circumstances.
The construction of our Rule 55 and § 1-1-109 fashioned by the majority obliterates the usual, reasonable and understood effect of default and allows McGarvin-Moberly to gain a defensive posture as favorable as though default had never occurred. I agree that McGarvin-Moberly must be permitted to defend on the issue of damages. I do not agree that it should be allowed to defend the issue of fault after default.
Accordingly, I dissent and would dismiss the writs of review as improvidently granted.