Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. v. Tanker Robert Watt Miller

• Decision Date: 16 April 1992
• Docket Number: No. 90-3466,90-3466
• Citation: 957 F.2d 1575
• Parties: , 60 USLW 2678 GREAT LAKES DREDGE & DOCK COMPANY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. TANKER ROBERT WATT MILLER, Defendant-Appellee. Complaint of CHEVRON TRANSPORT CORPORATION, as owner of the S/S ROBERT WATT MILLER, in an action for exoneration from or limitation of liability, Plaintiff. GREAT LAKES DREDGE & DOCK CO., a corporation, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CHEVRON SHIPPING COMPANY and Italia Societe Per Az Di Nav., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 1575

957 F.2d 1575

1992 A.M.C. 2310, 60 USLW 2678

GREAT LAKES DREDGE & DOCK COMPANY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. TANKER ROBERT WATT MILLER, Defendant-Appellee.

Complaint of CHEVRON TRANSPORT CORPORATION, as owner of the

S/S ROBERT WATT MILLER, in an action for

exoneration from or limitation of

liability, Plaintiff.

GREAT LAKES DREDGE & DOCK CO., a corporation, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CHEVRON SHIPPING COMPANY and Italia Societe Per Az Di Nav.,

Defendants-Appellees.

No. 90-3466.

United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit.

April 16, 1992.

Courtney Wilder Stanton, Jacksonville, Fla., John Michael Kops, Warren M. Faris, John M. Futrell, New Orleans, La., for plaintiff-appellant.

G. Morton Good, Henry H. Bolz, Miami, Fla., Allen Vlcek, Sullivan & Vlcek, Jacksonville, Fla., for defendant-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Before COX and DUBINA, Circuit Judges, and GODBOLD, Senior Circuit Judge.

COX, Circuit Judge:

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. ("Great Lakes") appeals the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Chevron Transport Corp. and Chevron Shipping Corp. (collectively referred to as "Chevron"). For the reasons discussed below, we reverse and remand.

I. Facts and Procedural Background

This appeal marks the third time this matter has come before this court. The background and facts of this case were extensively detailed by the district court in In re Chevron Transport Corp., 613 F.Supp. 1428 (M.D.Fla.1985), aff'd in part and rev'd in part Self v. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co., 832 F.2d 1540 (11th Cir.1987), and by this court in Ebanks v. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co., 688 F.2d 716 (11th Cir.1982), cert. denied 460 U.S. 1083, 103 S.Ct. 1774, 76 L.Ed.2d 346 (1983), and Self v. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co., 832 F.2d 1540 (11th Cir.1987), cert. denied 486 U.S. 1033, 108 S.Ct. 2017, 100 L.Ed.2d 604 (1988). Accordingly, the following factual summary is limited to those issues currently before the court.

In February 1975, the Robert Watt Miller, a tanker owned by Chevron Transport Corp. and operated by Chevron Shipping Corp., collided with the Alaska, a dredge owned by Great Lakes, in the St. Johns River near Jacksonville, Florida. As a result of the collision, eight crewmen of the Alaska were injured and two lost their lives.

The injured crewmen and the estates of the deceased filed separate suits against Great Lakes under the Jones Act and general maritime law. Great Lakes in turn filed third-party complaints against Chevron for contribution, indemnity, and damage to the Alaska. Meanwhile, Chevron settled with the injured crewmen and the estates of the deceased crewmen for a total of $707,800.

The district court severed the third-party claims against Chevron and tried before a jury the cases against Great Lakes. After a verdict was returned in favor of Great Lakes, the crewmen and estates appealed to this court. They argued that the district court erred in framing special interrogatories submitted to the jury. Those interrogatories asked the jury to determine the comparative degrees of fault of Great Lakes and Chevron, which was not a party to the suit. We reversed and remanded for a new trial, Ebanks, 688 F.2d at 722, saying:

Since the plaintiff is entitled to recover, as stated by the Court, against either of several tortfeasors, without regard to the percentage of fault, it was error for the trial court to distract the juror's attention by requiring it to allocate the degree of fault between the defendant and a non-party. If the jury had found the causation in the negligence which it found against Great Lakes, and Great Lakes considered that the total amount of damages for the injuries received by these plaintiffs was disproportionate for it to bear, it could have obtained contributions against Chevron, as it had already undertaken to do, in a different proceeding. That issue was to be tried at a different time and between two live opponents, and not as part of the suit by the injured workman and representative of a deceased workman against their employer under the Jones Act.

Id.

After that decision, Great Lakes settled with all the claimants except the estate of Danny Self for a total of $943,199. The Self claim, brought by his widow Vivian Self, was then heard in conjunction with Great Lakes's claims against Chevron. The district court concluded that Great Lakes was 30% responsible and Chevron was 70% responsible. It also found Self's total damages to be $661,354. Because Self had already settled with Chevron (which was 70% responsible), the district court limited Self's recovery against Great Lakes to 30% of her damages or $198,406.

On appeal, this court rejected the district court's limitation of Self's recovery to the percentage of Great Lakes's fault. We held the district court's reliance on Leger v. Drilling Well Control, Inc., 592 F.2d 1246 (5th Cir.1979), for such a limitation was misplaced because that case was inconsistent with the principles of joint and several liability subsequently discussed by the Supreme Court in Edmonds v. Compagnie Generale Transatlantique, 443 U.S. 256, 99 S.Ct. 2753, 61 L.Ed.2d 521 (1979). ¹ Self, 832 F.2d at 1545-48. We held that Self was entitled to recover her entire damages from Great Lakes, regardless of its percentage of fault, with a credit for the dollar amount ($315,000) of the settlement paid by Chevron, not a credit based upon Chevron's percentage of fault. Id. We also concluded that the district court underestimated the amount of Self's damages through faulty assumptions about her husband's pain and suffering and his future earnings potential. As a result, Self was likely to recover far more than the $198,406 judgment entered by the district court.

Great Lakes subsequently settled with the Self estate for $2,050,000. The sole remaining issue was Great Lakes's claims for contribution from Chevron. ² Great Lakes maintained that it was forced to pay far more than its proportionate share of all of the personal injury and wrongful death claims. The district court granted Chevron's motion for summary judgment on the contribution claims under the so-called "settlement bar" rule. The settlement bar rule prohibits one joint tortfeasor from seeking contribution from another joint tortfeasor who has settled with the injured party. The district court also held that Great Lakes's claims for contribution were barred because Great Lakes itself had settled with the personal injury and death claimants. Great Lakes appeals.

II. Issues on Appeal

Great Lakes contends that the district court erred in granting Chevron summary judgment on Great Lakes's contribution claims. Resolving this issue requires that we answer two questions:

1) Whether a settlement bar rule precludes a joint tortfeasor from seeking contribution from another joint tortfeasor who has settled with the injured party?

2) Whether, under what may be called a "settler barred" rule, a joint tortfeasor who has settled with the injured party may seek contribution from another joint tortfeasor?

III. Contentions of the Parties

Chevron argues that in Self this court held a settling joint tortfeasor is relieved of all further liability for contribution to other joint tortfeasors. The settlement bar rule, therefore, is both the law of this circuit and the law of the case. Chevron further argues that Great Lakes's claims for contribution are barred by Great Lakes's own settlement with the injured parties and the estates.

Great Lakes, on the other hand, contends that any discussion of the settlement bar rule in Self was dicta and not binding on the parties. Furthermore, adoption of a settlement bar rule is inconsistent with the Supreme Court's maritime precedent. Great Lakes also argues that Great Lakes's own settlement does not bar its action against Chevron for contribution.

IV. Standard of Review

The district court's grant of summary judgment is subject to de novo review by this court. See Shipes v. Hanover Ins. Co., 884 F.2d 1357 (11th Cir.1989). Summary judgment is appropriate where there is no genuine issue of material fact and where the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986).

V. Discussion

A. The Law of the Case Doctrine

This court's opinion in Self did indeed suggest that Great Lakes's action for contribution may be barred by Chevron's settlement with the injured parties. Self, 832 F.2d at 1547. This issue, however, was not before the court at that time. As we noted, "Great Lakes retained, of course, a right to contribution from Chevron.... In the case below, the district court granted partial summary judgment on the issue of indemnity, and left the possibility of contribution available. We affirm the district court on this point." Id. at 1556-57. Because the issue of contribution and the settlement bar rule had not yet been resolved by the district court, the discussion in Self was dicta. As such, it is neither the law of the case nor binding precedent. We are therefore free to give that question fresh consideration.

B. Historical Background

Before addressing the settlement bar question directly, it is necessary to briefly review the historical evolution of the law regarding distribution of liability among joint tortfeasors in maritime actions. At common law, contribution among joint tortfeasors was not recognized. In admiralty, however, a limited right to contribution has been recognized for more than 135 years. See, e.g., The Schooner Catharine v. Dickinson, 58 U.S. (17 How.) 170, 15 L.Ed. 233 (1855). Under the admiralty "divided damages" rule, if two vessels were both at fault for a collision, each was held responsible for one-half of the total damage. Although damages for the collision were shared among the joint tortfeasors, liability was not based on the parties' relative degrees of fault.

In 1974, the Supreme...