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Lewis v. Samson9/14/1999
portunity to provide the analysis and procedure that should be followed in the course of a trial that may involve successive tortfeasor liability.
{39} In Lujan, a personal injury plaintiff sustained a broken leg in an automobile accident. He signed a release discharging the defendant motorist and "all other persons . . . who . . . may be jointly or severally liable to the Releasors . . . for damages to Releasors' person . . . arising out of an accident on or about January 27, 1990, at the intersection of Blake and Tapia, SW, Albuquerque, New Mexico." 120 N.M. at 423-24, 902 P.2d at 1026-27. After executing the release, the plaintiff sued Healthsouth, alleging that its employee improperly manipulated plaintiff's leg in March 1990, refracturing the original break. See id. at 424, 902 P.2d at 1027. Healthsouth moved for summary judgment on the ground that plaintiff's release barred the medical malpractice claims. See id. The trial court granted summary judgment, and this Court affirmed. Our Supreme Court, however, reversed, holding that the general release did not bar claims "against a successive tortfeasor whose liability is limited to an injury enhancement arising out of the subsequent malpractice." Id. at 423, 902 P.2d at 1026.
{40} Despite the procedural differences between Lujan and this case, we believe Lujan's holding and Discussion concerning successive tortfeasor liability are relevant here where the case proceeded to a jury trial on the merits and will do so again on remand. We also realize that the specific question before our Supreme Court in Lujan was different. The issue there was whether the release form signed by the plaintiff precluded the plaintiff from later seeking damages against the defendant for malpractice as a result of alleged injury enhancement after the initial accident. But to answer that question, the Court was required to apply its analysis, as a matter of law, to conclude that the defendant in a medical malpractice context was a successive, not a concurrent, tortfeasor. That is precisely the question that was before the trial court below and is now before us on appeal. We thus consider the analysis and holding in Lujan not only instructive but binding.
{41} The Court in Lujan determined successive tortfeasor liability as a matter of law on a summary judgment motion, thus illustrating that a court can make that determination without hearing evidence. See id. at 425-26, 902 P.2d at 1028-29. Based on the facts concerning the plaintiff's original injury , malpractice claims, and refracture, the Court determined that Healthsouth was a successive tortfeasor. See id. at 423-26, 902 P.2d at 1026-29. Similarly, the trial court here, under the particular facts in this appeal, could have determined Defendants' successive tortfeasor liability based on Plaintiff's motion. An important consideration, in this regard, is that Plaintiff stipulated to the assailant's stabbings. Plaintiff also alleged that Defendants' negligence enhanced the patient's original injury . In our view, that is all the trial court needed to know to alert it to Plaintiff's liability theory. More specifically, for the reasons that follow, we believe this information sufficed to preclude argument and evidence of the assailant as a concurrent tortfeasor.
{42} "When the negligent acts or omissions of two or more persons combine to produce a single injury , the law considers those persons concurrent tortfeasors." Lujan, 120 N.M. at 425, 902 P.2d at 1028. In such cases, "`two or more causes combine to produce . . . a single result, incapable of any reasonable division.'" Id. (alteration in original) (quoting W. Page Keeton et al., Prosser and Keeton on the Law of Torts
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