Liability And Joinder Of Defendants

A.

Plaintiff Recovers Once A plaintiff can only recover once for an injury, i.e., the entire amount paid by all the joint tortfeasors has to equal the value of the plaintiff’s damages.

B.

Indivisible Harm If more than one tortfeasor was a proximate cause of an injury and the harm to a plaintiff is indivisible, then each tortfeasor is liable for the entire harm, i.e., jointly and severally liable. If one party does not pay its share of the damages, the other parties will have to pay for that share.
1.
Burden of Proof The defendants have the burden of proving apportionment of the harm among themselves. Harm that occurs from successive accidents is sometimes considered indivisible.

2.
Those To Whom Joint and Several Liability Applies

a.
Concurrent Tortfeasors Each defendant acts independently of the others, but they all combine to cause a single indivisible injury.

b.
Joint Tortfeasors All the defendants have acted together to harm the plaintiff.

c.
Divisible Harm If the harm is divisible then each tortfeasor is only liable for that part of the harm that each proximately caused, unless the two tortfeasors acted in concert. If one party does not pay its share, the other parties are still only liable for their own shares.