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Richardson v. Navistar International Transportation8/15/2000
Certification from the Federal Court
On Certification from the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, The Honorable Deanell Reece Tacha
Pursuant to rule 41 of the Utah Rules of Appellate Procedure, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit certified the following question to us for decision:
Under Utah law, may plaintiffs who have entered into a judicially approved settlement with multiple defendants after a trial in which a jury allocated 100% of fault among the parties pursuant to the Utah comparative fault scheme, Utah Code Ann. §§ 78-27-37 to -43, maintain a subsequent tort action for the same injuries, arising out of the same transaction or occurrence, against additional known defendants who were not parties to the first action?
The question as framed is somewhat ambiguous in failing to emphasize that the first trial (with its jury allocation of fault) resulted not in a judgment, but in a settlement between the parties. With that point underscored, we answer the question in the affirmative for the reasons set forth below.
BACKGROUND
On July 3, 1989, a 1978 Navistar International truck parked on the shoulder of Interstate 15 was struck in the rear by a 1978 Toyota Land Cruiser driven by Karen Andrews, the mother of Christian and Jessica Andrews ("plaintiffs"), after she swerved to avoid a vehicle that had veered into her lane. The hood of the Toyota slid under the Navistar truck and its windshield collided with the rear bed of the Navistar truck. As a result, Andrews and two other family members, who were passengers in the front seat of the Toyota, were killed. Plaintiffs, who were passengers in the rear compartment of the Toyota, were injured. Specifically, Christian Andrews suffered a permanent brain injury, and Jessica Andrews suffered broken bones, abrasions, and contusions.
Following the accident, the plaintiffs filed a negligence action in the Fourth Judicial District Court of Utah against (1) the owner, the driver, and the mechanic of the truck that swerved into Andrew's lane; (2) the driver and the owner of the Navistar truck; (3) the employer of the driver of the Navistar truck; and (4) the Utah Department of Transportation. Prior to trial, the plaintiffs settled with several of the defendants.
Pursuant to the trial court's order, the trial against the remaining defendants was bifurcated, i.e., the liability issues were to be tried first, and the damages issues were to be tried second. At the close of the liability phase of the trial, a special verdict form was submitted to the jury asking them to determine (1) whether any of the defendants originally named in the action were negligent; (2) if so, whether such negligence was a proximate cause of the accident; and (3) what percentage of the fault for causing the accident should be allocated to those defendants whose negligence proximately caused the accident. In addition, the special verdict form directed the jury that the percentages of fault allocated to the defendants determined to be proximate causes of the accident should total 100%.
The jury returned a verdict allocating 15% of the fault to the plaintiffs' mother, and the remaining 85% of the fault among the defendants originally named in the action who proximately caused the accident. The trial court issued an order and non-final judgment on the special verdict of the jury awarding a partial, non-final judgment in favor of the plaintiffs in the amount of 28% of the total amount of damages which was to be fixed by a jury at a later time. Following this order, the plaintiffs settled with the defendants against whom they had gone to tri
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