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Motorists Mut. Ins. Co. v. Huron Rd. Hosp.8/30/1995
789. The court noted that an exception existed "where a person is chargeable witsanother's wrongful act and pays damages to the injured party as a result thereof."Id. In such a situation, the secondarily liable party had a right of indemnity against the primarily liable party.
Painting with its broadest equitable brush, this court found that the particular relationship between tortfeasors in its case did not fall clearly into the category of concurrent tortfeasors, nor into a situation where primary and secondary liability existed. However, the court found that the relationship "[fell] closer, and more equitably, into the latter category than the former." Travelers, 41 Ohio St.2d at 16, 70 O.O.2d at 9, 321 N.E.2d at 790. Thus, the court found that a tortfeasor had a right to indemnity from a physician who negligently caused a new injury or aggravated the existing injury during the course of his treatment of the injury caused by the tortfeasor.
The Travelers court was well intentioned, and crafted a fair result. The decision provided an equitable stopgap prior to the legislature's creation of a right of contribution between concurrent tortfeasors. Good intentions, however, like bad facts, sometimes make bad law. Travelers terms a right of contribution a right to indemnity, and to that extent we accordingly overrule that decision. The correct statement of the law is as follows:
When a medical provider's negligent treatment of bodily injuries caused by a tortfeasor results in further injury or aggravation of the original injury, R.C. 2307.31 creates a right of contribution between the tortfeasor and the medical provider as to indivisible injuries.
R.C. 2307.31 provides, in part:
"(A) * * * f two or more persons are jointly and severally liable in tort for the same injury or loss to person or property or for the same wrongful death, there is a right of contribution among them even though judgment has not been recovered against all or any of them. The right of contribution exists only in favor of a tortfeasor who has paid more than his proportionate share of the common liability * * *."
Ohio's contribution statutes govern the relationship between Motorists and the appellees. Motorists' failure to follow the statutory dictates extinguished any contribution rights it may have had. R.C. 2307.31(B) provides that "a tortfeasor who enters into a settlement with a claimant is not entitled to recover contribution from another tortfeasor whose liability for the injury * * * is not extinguished by the settlement * * *." Since Motorists' settlement extinguished only the liability of its insureds, it is not entitled to contribution from the appellees.
Further, Motorists failed to comply with the dictates of R.C. 2307.32(C), which require a tortfeasor to seek contribution within one year of settling with a claimant.
Since Motorists never had a right of indemnity against the appellees, and since its right of contribution was nullified by its failure to follow statutory dictates, we affirm the judgment of the appellate court on this issue.
II
For a wrongful death action to be considered timely, it must be commenced within two years of the decedent's death. R.C. 2125.02(D). Civ.R. 3(A) defines what constitutes "commencement":
"A civil action is commenced by filing a complaint with the court, if service is obtained within one year from such filing upon a named defendant * * *."
Therefore, if a plaintiff fails to file a complaint within the two-year statutory period, or fails to obtain service over a defendant within a year of that filing, the complaint must be considered unt
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