 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Ripa v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp.6/5/1995
t of his damages. This was incorrect. The Judge should have molded this verdict based upon the stipulation and entered a judgment that defendant and Owens-Illinois were each thirty percent responsible since only sixty percent of the responsibility was in issue in this case.
Ordinarily, and unless there was only vicarious responsibility placed on Owens-Corning, it and Owens-Illinois would have had a right to contribution from each other and Keene if they paid more than their allocated shares. Since Owens-Illinois settled for some unspecified dollar amount, its net thirty percent responsibility was satisfied for whatever it paid, and Owens-Corning should have been responsible for only the remaining thirty percent of the judgment.
It is true that if Keene had settled for a specific dollar amount, whatever amount it settled for would satisfy the percentage fixed by the jury. Kiss v. Jacob, 138 N.J. 278, 283-284, 650 A.2d 336 (1994) (quoting from Cartel Capital, supra, and Rogers v. Spady, supra). But a similar result does not occur when a defendant settles for an agreed percentage responsibility. For example, if a plaintiff settles with one or a group of defendants for ten percent, fifty percent or ninety-nine percent liability, the remaining defendants should not potentially bear responsibility for the total liability in the case. This is best demonstrated by reference to a plaintiff who settles with some of the defendants and acknowledges that the settlement constitutes one hundred percent of the liability. Any remaining defendant should have the right to say that the case is totally settled and to ask for a dismissal. Any contrary decision would require that we say that a matter which is one hundred percent settled is still open. We see no reason to sustain such a fiction. Reasoning backwards, a case that is forty percent settled is only open to sixty percent remaining liability.
Here, there is another strong argument for holding Owens-Corning to only thirty percent: Keene, Owens-Illinois and Owens-Corning were jointly represented at trial. When the attorneys settled forty percent of the case, to be allocated to one of the three clients, it appears clear to us that there was an intention that only sixty percent of the liability remained.
III
Defendant makes good arguments for its next claim, that the total amount of the awards for pain and suffering ($500,000) and wrongful death ($325,000) from the mesothelioma were high. But when the total awards were broken down for the asbestosis, mesothelioma, loss of companionship, and the like, the compensatory awards against Owens-Corning, while high, cannot seriously be challenged. While Ripa was incapacitated by his other medical problems, he was dying a painful death from the mesothelioma. The trial Judge sustained the compensatory damage award, and we will defer to the trial Judge's "feel of the case." Carey v. Lovett, 132 N.J. 44, 66, 622 A.2d 1279 (1993).
IV
Defendant asserts that its expert report from Dr. Demopoulos was mistakenly excluded on a pretrial motion before a different Judge, that the trial Judge confirmed this decision, and that this constitutes reversible error. While we agree with defendant that the testimony should not have been excluded, the error is clearly harmless under the peculiar circumstances of this case.
During the compensatory phase of the trial, Owens-Corning offered no expert testimony concerning asbestos. It now claims that the trial court improperly excluded the expert testimony of its expert, Dr. Harry Demopoulos. Owens-Corning raises various allegations of error. It claims, and we agree, that an Evid. R. 8 (N.J.R.E. 104(a)) evidentiary
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 New Jersey Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|