Court Opinion

ID: 9683798
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 13:37:01.342578+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:50.309696
License: Public Domain

John A. Fogleman, Chief Justice. Appellee Arnold Wallace and the appellant Bruce Oakley have filed their petitions for rehearing herein. The petition of Arnold Wallace is denied. We find no merit in the petition of Bruce Oakley in any particular except one. Oakley calls our attention to the fact that after Larson Machine Company, Inc. and G & G Manufacturing Company are eliminated from the case on the ground that a verdict should have been directed in their favor, the apportionment of negligence made by the jury is no longer applicable. So long as Larson and G & G were parties, Wallace was entitled to recover his damages from any of the three parties found negligent, even though he was more negligent than any one of them, but his negligence was less than 50 percent of the total negligence. See Walton v. Tull, 234 Ark. 882, 356 S.W. 2d 20, 8 ALR 3d 708; Riddell v. Little, 253 Ark. 686, 488 S.W. 2d 34; Wheeling Pipe Line, Inc. v. Edrington, 259 Ark. 600, 535 S.W. 2d 225. When Larson and G & G were eliminated, it would appear that Wallace was more negligent than Oakley. Still, we cannot say on the basis of this jury verdict that Wallace was guilty of more or less than 50 percent of the total negligence and we are unwilling to say that simply because his negligence exceeds that attributed to Oakley by the jury, that Oakley is entitled to a dismissal. In other words, we cannot automatically translate the jury verdict into a finding that Wallace’s fault amounted to 80 percent and Oakley’s to only 20 percent. See Fitzhugh v. Elliott, 237 Ark. 88, 371 S.W. 2d 533. It must be remembered that the comparison made by the jury was on the basis of fault rather than negligence. Wallace’s fault was based only on negligence, as was Oakley’s. On the other hand, the fault apportioned to Larson and G & G was based upon both negligence and breach of warranty. Thus, if fault based upon breach of warranty had been eliminated when the question went to the jury, we can only speculate as to how the jury might have apportioned fault between Wallace and Oakley. This only further complicates the matter, and it can only be satisfactorily resolved by a reversal of the judgment against Oakley and a remand of the case to the circuit court for retrial. To that extent Oakley’s petition for rehearing is granted. In all other respects, that petition for rehearing is denied. Hickman, Stroud and Mays, JJ., not participating.