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Nationwide Ins. Co. v. Shenefield12/18/1992
MELVIN L. RESNICK, Judge.
This case is before the court on appeal from a judgment of the Huron County Court of Common Pleas which, after a jury trial, awarded substituted third-party plaintiff, Nationwide Insurance Company ("Nationwide"), $50,000 on its claim for contribution from appellants, Jason Shenefield and Billy Joy Shenefield.
On July 5, 1989, Paul A. Parker was injured as a result of an automobile accident. Parker's automobile collided head-on with the vehicle of Jerry L. Moore. On May 7, 1990, Paul Parker and his wife, Arlene A. Parker, filed a complaint in which they named Jerry L. Moore and "John Doe, Owner of Sheep" as defendants. The complaint alleged that John Doe's sheep were negligently allowed to wander into Jerry Moore's lane of travel, that Moore operated his vehicle left of the center line (in order to avoid the sheep) and was cited for a violation of R.C. 4511.26, and that the negligence of the defendants caused property damage and personal injury to the Parkers.
After answering; Moore filed a third-party complaint raising a claim of contribution and/or indemnity against Billy Joy Shenefield, Jason Shenefield and Roger Voorhees. All three third-party defendants answered. The claim against Voorhees was later dismissed, without prejudice.
On December 18, 1991, the Parkers filed a motion to amend their complaint in order to name Billy Joy and Jason Shenefield as defendants in their negligence action. The Shenefields filed a memorandum in opposition in which they asserted that the Parkers failed to satisfy the requirements of Civ.R. 15(D) and that, pursuant to R.C. 2305.10, the two-year statute of limitations governing actions for bodily injury/personal property damage had expired.
On December 26, 1991, the Parkers signed a release of all claims against Jerry L. Moore, Nationwide (Moore's insurer), "certain John Does subsequently identified as Jason Shenefield and/or Billy Joy Shenefield" and "any and all other persons." Nationwide paid the Parkers $100,000 to settle their claim. In addition, Moore assigned to the Parkers one-third of any monies he might receive as a result of his action for contribution against the Shenefields.
On January 13, 1992, the court below entered a judgment on the settlement agreement. The Parkers' motion to amend their complaint and the complaint itself were dismissed. The case proceeded to trial on the third-party complaint; however, Nationwide and the Parkers were substituted as the real parties in interest for the third-party plaintiff, Jerry Moore.
In their trial brief, in a motion to dismiss made at the commencement of trial, and in a motion for a directed verdict at the close of third-party plaintiff's case, the Shenefields argued that the right to contribution was extinguished because the Parkers failed to name the Shenefields as defendants in the original complaint prior to the time that the applicable statute of limitations expired. That is, the Shenefields asserted that the release was executed after the running of the two-year statute of limitations and did not extinguish their liability to the Parkers because any cause of action against them ceased to exist as of July 5, 1991. Thus, the Shenefields contended that Nationwide failed to satisfy the requirements of R.C. 2307.31(B), that portion of the Ohio Contribution Among Joint Tortfeasors Act which governs settlement agreements. The trial court overruled the motions to dismiss and for a directed verdict.
After the jury reached a verdict finding that fifty percent of the negligence which caused injury to the Parkers was attributable to the Shenefields, the lower court entered j
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