Court Opinion

ID: 9553085
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 19:21:50.142775+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:29:39.814138
License: Public Domain

ROONEY, Justice,
dissenting.
The majority opinion reached its result through a proper historical analysis of the case under existing statutes and previous case law. The Honorable Kenneth G. Hamm, District Court Judge, handled the trial and related matters in his usual competent manner and applied the law as now developed in Wyoming to the issues in this ease. However, it is time to settle the conflicting aspects of our law in this area to the end of obtaining equity and consistency. It is time to stop trying to rationalize the conflict between the comparative-negligence statute, § 1-1-109, W.S.1977, and the Contribution Among Joint Tort-feasors Act, §§ 1-1-110 through 1-1-113, W.S.1977.
The comparative-negligence statute abolished the common-law contributory-negligence rule, which allowed recovery for “all or nothing” depending upon the existence or nonexistence of any negligence on the part of the plaintiff, in favor of apportioning damages on the basis of fault. Under the common-law “all or nothing” rule, there was some sense in the rule carried forward in the Contribution Among Joint Tortfeasors Act making the liability of multiple defendants to be joint and several. This was because the negligence was determined on a unit basis and not on a “one to one” basis as mandated by the comparative-negligence statute.
The objective or purpose of the comparative-negligence statute is thwarted by the Contribution Among Joint Tortfeasors Act.
Stated again, the comparative-negligence statute is designed to apportion damages resulting from death or injury to person or property according to fault.
“§ 4. Purpose.
“The doctrine or rule of comparative negligence is designed to eliminate the rigors of the common-law contributory negligence rule, and, in particular, the ‘all or nothing’ effect of that rule, by either modifying or completely abrogating it in this particular respect.” Am.Jur.2d New Topic Service, Comparative Negligence, § 4 (1977).
*1279“The term ‘comparative negligence might be used to describe any system of law that by some method, in some situations, apportions costs of an accident, at least in part, on the basis of the relative fault of the responsible parties. * * * ” Schwartz, Comparative Negligence, § 2.1 (1974).
“The hardship of the doctrine of contributory negligence upon the plaintiff is readily apparent. It places upon one party the entire burden of a loss for which two are, by hypothesis, responsible. The negligence of the defendant has played no less a part in causing the damage; the plaintiff’s deviation from the community standard of conduct may even be relatively slight, and the defendant’s more extreme; the injured man is in all probability, for the very reason of his injury, the less able of the two to bear the financial burden of his loss; and the answer of the law to all this is that the defendant goes scot free of all liability, and the plaintiff bears it all. * * *
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“An entirely different approach to the whole problem would be to divide the damages between the two parties. * * *
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“In the United States numerous statutes have been enacted providing for similar apportionment of damages according to fault. * * * ” Prosser, Law of Torts, 4th Ed., § 67 (1971).
Our comparative-negligence statute is one of the statutes referred to by Prosser.
It is inconsistent and contrary to the obvious over-all legislative intent to interpret our statutes to apportion damages according to fault, and “one on one” as approved in the majority opinion, with respect to (1) the relationship between plaintiff and a defendant to determine the fact of liability, i.e., 50% fault, (2) measuring the negligence of each of several defendants against that of the plaintiff (see Board of County Commissioners of County of Campbell v. Ridenour, Wyo., 623 P.2d 1174, reh. denied 627 P.2d 163 (1981)), and (3) allowing contribution among joint tort-feasors according to their “relative degrees of fault,” and then to refuse to apportion the damages according to fault and “one on one” with respect to plaintiff’s ability to recover the entire judgment from only one of several joint tortfeasors.
The inconsistency is apparent. All of the criticisms of the old common-law contributory-negligence rule are equally applicable to the result reached by the old common-law rule — whether incorporated into a statute or not — making each joint tortfeasor jointly and severally liable for a judgment in favor of the plaintiff.
The inconsistency, thus, also carries forward the inequity. A verdict finds plaintiff to have been damaged in the amount of $100,000. It apportions fault to plaintiff at 10%, to defendant X at 11%, and to defendant Y at 79%. Defendant Y is insolvent and pays nothing although the damage was primarily his fault. Plaintiff recovers, under the majority opinion, the full $100,000 from defendant X who was only slightly more at fault than plaintiff. If the objective or purpose of the statutory change from common-law contributory negligence to comparative negligence was to apportion damages according to fault, the same is completely lost in those instances involving multiple defendants when one of the defendants must bear damages completely beyond his fault.
The same can be said with reference to settlement by a joint tortfeasor. If the amount of his settlement is less than his proportionate fault, the other tortfeasors should not, by that fact, have their damages increased beyond their proportionate fault. The inequity is again illustrated by a hypothetical situation. A verdict finds plaintiff to have been damaged in the amount of $100,000. It apportions fault to plaintiff at 10%, to defendant X at 11% and to defendant Y at 79%. Defendant Y settles before trial at $1,000. Plaintiff recovers $99,000 from defendant X who was only slightly more at fault than plaintiff. Defendant X cannot obtain contribution from defendant Y since § 1 — 1—113(a)(ii), *1280W.S.1977, provides that a release or a covenant not to sue (which results from a settlement)
“ * * * discharges the tortfeasor to whom it is given from all liability for contribution to any other tortfeasor.” (Emphasis added.)
All of this is well said in the discussion of the contribution statute (under the heading of settlement) in the majority opinion:
“ * * * were there no contribution statutes, the defendant against whom the plaintiff chooses to proceed would be required to bear the entire burden of the judgment even though his percentage of fault might be minimal with respect to other tortfeasors and only barely in excess of the plaintiffs fault. This offends the public policy announced by the legislature through the enactment of the comparative-negligence and contribution statutes which holds that all actors in negligence suits, whether they be parties or not, must bear their fair share of the compensation burden. If all tortfeasors, including defendants and nonparty actors, were not required to participate in the sharing process, the policy of the state would be frustrated. Thus, the comparative-negligence statutes and the Right to Contribution Among Joint Tort-feasors statutes are interrelated and must be read and considered together.” (Footnote omitted and emphasis in original.)
If the policy announced by the legislature is to have all actors in a negligence suit “bear their fair share of the compensation burden,” such policy should be equally applicable to those settling the case, to the plaintiff and to each defendant.
The Contribution Among Joint Tort-feasors Act provides a method for allocation of damages according to fault among the multiple defendants premised on the assumption that they all have assets sufficient to pay their share, but it completely abandons the policy from a practical standpoint in providing joint and several liability of the defendants to the plaintiff. As already noted, the result does not allocate the damages according to fault. It changes the allocation according to the ability to pay.
Accepting that the purpose, policy or objective of the legislature is to allocate damage in a negligence action according to fault, what do we do in interpreting the statutes, with statutory language purporting to retain the joint and several liability of multiple defendants?1 The answer is obvious. We should do that which we are often called upon to do in interpreting and construing legislative enactments and give full force to the legislative intent.
In this instance, we must recognize the conflict between the Comparative Negligence Act and the Contribution Among Joint Tortfeasors Act. We must recognize that this inconsistency creates an ambiguity. Town of Clayton v. Colorado & S. Ry. Co., 51 F.2d 977, 82 A.L.R. 417 (10th Cir.1931); State ex rel. Rucker v. Tapp, Okl., 380 P.2d 260 (1963). The inconsistency, per se, prevents the statutes from being clear and plain and thus not subject to statutory construction. State ex rel. Motor Vehicle Division v. Holtz, Wyo., 674 P.2d 732 (1983). Ambiguity exists where the words or groups of words in statutes are susceptible to more than one meaning, and resort shall then be made to rules of statutory construction. Attletweedt v. State, Wyo., 684 P.2d 812 (1984); Matter of Estate of Reed, Wyo., 672 P.2d 829 (1983). Ambiguity is doubtfulness, uncertainty or *1281doubleness of meaning. Such always exists when there is an inconsistency or conflict in the language used.
“*** When the language is not clear or is ambiguous, the court must look to the mischief the statute was intended to cure, the historical setting surrounding its enactment, the public policy of the state, the conclusions of law, and other prior and contemporaneous facts and circumstances, making use of the accepted rules of construction to ascertain a legislative intent that is reasonable and consistent. [Citations.]” State ex rel. Motor Vehicle Division v. Holtz, supra, 674 P.2d at 736.
“ * * * Legislative policy may carry a statute beyond the strict letter. * * * ” State v. Capital Coal Co., 54 Wyo. 176, 88 P.2d 481, 483 (1939).
» * * * ^jjen ⅛6 statute is ambiguous, the intent of the legislature must be ascertained from its terms in light of the objects and purposes intended to be accomplished. * * * ” Kamp v. Kamp, Wyo., 640 P.2d 48, 50 (1982).
As already noted, the general intent of the legislature in enacting the comparative-negligence statute was to change the common-law contributory-negligence rule which made any negligence of the plaintiff a defense to his negligence action, and to provide for allocation of damages on the basis of fault. This is the policy and purpose of the Act. Accordingly, to maintain this objective, the inconsistent portions of the Contribution Among Joint Tortfeasors Act must be declared to be inoperative and of no force and effect. Specifically, I would hold that any requirement that each joint tortfeasor is jointly and severally liable for plaintiffs entire loss no longer exists under the comparative-negligence statute in actions for damages for death or injury to person and property resulting from negligence, each defendant to be liable only for that amount as his percentage of negligence in excess of that of the plaintiff bears to the total damages. This being so, there is no need for contribution, and any change from the historical rule prohibiting contribution is unnecessary. This holding is consistent with the statutory change from the historical rule that a release of one tortfeasor releases all, and that portion of the Contribution Among Joint Tortfeasors Act which changes the historical rule in this respect would still be effective. See Prosser, Law of Torts, 4th Ed., §§ 47, 49 and 50.
This interpretation and construction follows, once it is recognized that the comparative-negligence statute allocates the damages between plaintiff and defendants on a “one to one” basis, Board of County Commissioners v. Ridenour, supra. The result does away with the inequity of having one only slightly at fault having to make payment for another who is greatly at fault. If one settles for an amount which turns out to be other than what would be his share, based upon his percentage of fault, any gain or loss will not be that of another defendant, but will be that of the plaintiff and settling defendant. The bargain between them will be just that — their bargain.
This position has been adopted by statute or by court action in other states. N.H. Rev.Stat.Ann. § 507:7-a (1983); Vt.Stat. Ann., Title 12," § 1036 (1973); Stannard v. Harris, 135 Vt. 544, 380 A.2d 101 (1977); Howard v. Spafford, 132 Vt. 434, 321 A.2d 74 (1974); Nev.Rev.Stat. § 41.141(2)(a) and (b) (1979); Kan.Stat.Ann. § 60-258a(d) (1983); Lester v. Magic Chef, Inc., 230 Kan. 643, 641 P.2d 353 (1982); Brown v. Keill, 224 Kan. 195, 580 P.2d 867 (1978); Bartlett v. New Mexico Welding Supply, Inc., 98 N.M. 152, 646 P.2d 579, cert. denied 98 N.M. 336, 648 P.2d 794 (1982); Scott v. Rizzo, 96 N.M. 682, 634 P.2d 1234 (1981); Laubach v. Morgan, Okl., 588 P.2d 1071 (1978), limited by Boyles v. Oklahoma Natural Gas Company, Okl., 619 P.2d 613 (1980), to case where plaintiff has some negligence; Berry v. Empire Indemnity Insurance Company, Okl., 634 P.2d 718 (1981); Ohio Rev.Code Ann. § 2315.19(A)(2) (Baldwin 1984); Simonsen v. Bario Plastics Co., Inc., 551 F.2d 469 (1st Cir.1977).
*1282I would remand the case with directions to amend the judgment against Kirby to reflect Kirby’s liability to be 30% of $8,392,-216.90 after reduction for 5% attributable to plaintiff’s negligence, i.e., $8,392,216.90 less $419,610.85, or $7,972,606.05 times 30% or a total judgment against Kirby of $2,391,781.82.

. For example, § 1-1-111, W.S.1977, reads in pertinent part:
“(a) In determining the pro rata shares of tortfeasors in the entire liability:
“(i) The relative degrees of fault of the joint tortfeasors shall be considered in determining their pro rata shares solely for the purpose of determining their rights of contribution among themselves, each remaining severally liable to the injured person for the whole injury as at common law.”
And § 1-1-110(h), W.S.1977, reads:
"W.S. 1-1-110 through 1-1-113 do not affect the common law liability of the several joint tortfeasors to have judgments recovered and payment made from them individually by the injured person for the whole injury. * * * "