Aalco Mfg. Co. v. City of Espanola

• Decision Date: 12 August 1980
• Docket Number: No. 12910,12910
• Citation: 1980 NMSC 88,618 P.2d 1230,95 N.M. 66
• Parties: AALCO MANUFACTURING COMPANY, a Foreign Corporation, Petitioner, v. CITY OF ESPANOLA, a Municipal Corporation, Respondent.
• Court: New Mexico Supreme Court

Page 1230

618 P.2d 1230

95 N.M. 66

AALCO MANUFACTURING COMPANY, a Foreign Corporation Petitioner, v. CITY OF ESPANOLA, a Municipal Corporation, Respondent.

No. 12910.

Supreme Court of New Mexico.

Aug. 12, 1980.

[95 NM 66] Catron, Catron & Sawtell, John S. Catron, Santa Fe, for petitioner.

White, Koch, Kelly & McCarthy, C. Emery Cuddy, Jr., Daniel H. Friedman, Santa Fe, for respondent.

OPINION

PAYNE, Justice.

Peggy Sue Sanchez and her mother sued the City of Espanola, Aalco Manufacturing Company and Tiano's Sporting Goods Store for damages arising from an accident in which a volleyball net standard fell and severely injured Peggy Sue's foot. The standard was manufactured by Aalco. Tiano's purchased the standard in the course of its business and sold it to the City of Espanola which used it in a city supervised recreation facility. A jury found the City liable for the injury under a negligence theory and found Tiano's and Aalco liable under strict products liability. Judgment was entered finding the three defendants jointly and severally liable.

The defendants cross-claimed against each other and the court assessed one half of the judgment against the City. The other half was assessed jointly against Tiano's and Aalco, with Aalco being ordered to indemnify Tiano's for its portion of the assessment.

The trial court's fifty-fifty split was based on its finding that the injury was proximately caused, both by the City's negligent use of the apparatus and by Aalco's defective manufacture of it. The court concluded that Aalco and the City were both active tortfeasors and should be considered as joint tortfeasors under the Uniform Contribution Among Tortfeasors Act (Uniform Act), Sections 41-3-1 through 41-3-8, N.M.S.A.1978, whereas Tiano's is not a joint tortfeasor under the Act because its liability is purely technical, founded not on negligence but derived solely from strict liability. Hence, the court assessed one half of the judgment against Aalco and Tiano's as a single entity and the other half against the City.

The City appealed the apportionment of the judgment, claiming it should pay only one third of the damages since there were three tortfeasors. The Court of Appeals agreed with the City and reapportioned the damages, requiring Aalco to pay two thirds and the City one third. Aalco's indemnification of Tiano's was not appealed. The Court of Appeals concluded that a defendant found liable under strict products liability is a joint tortfeasor under the Uniform Act and his liability is not merely technical but is founded on his failure to sell safe products to the public.

The confusion in apportionment is generated by the fact that the doctrine of strict liability and the Uniform Act are directed at different goals. The Uniform Act requires tortfeasors who share in causing an injury to share equally in paying for that injury. Its goal is equity among tortfeasors. The purpose behind strict products liability, on the other hand, is to allow an injured consumer to recover against a seller or manufacturer without the requirement of proving ordinary negligence. Its goal is to protect the injured consumer. As adopted by New Mexico in Stang v. Hertz Corporation, 83 N.M. 730, 497 P.2d 732 (1972), the Restatement (Second) of Torts § 402A (1965) accomplishes that goal by imputing fault for an injury caused by a product to the seller of that product, regardless of the presence or absence of negligence on his part. This is because "(i)n some cases the retailer may be the only member of that enterprise reasonably available to the injured plaintiff." Vandermark v. Ford Motor Company, 61 Cal.2d 256, 37 Cal.Rptr. 896, 899, 391 P.2d 168, 171 (1964).

We held in Stang, supra, that the doctrine of strict liability in tort was evolved to place liability on the manufacturer of the defective product as the party primarily responsible for the injury. This liability has been extended to the wholesalers and retailers of the defective product. ¹ As stated in Vandermark, supra :

Strict liability on the manufacturer and retailer alike affords maximum protection to the injured plaintiff and works no injustice to the defendants, for they can adjust the costs of such protection between them in the course of their continuing business relationship.

37 Cal.Rptr. at 900, 391 P.2d at 172.

The extension of strict liability to non-negligent retailers provides two pockets from which the injured consumer can obtain relief, one being the usually local and more accessible retailer. The retailer may look to the manufacturer for indemnification for any loss he may suffer. This puts the risk of the manufacturer's insolvency on the retailer, but it is a risk that he is better able to foresee and protect against than the consumer.

Imputing liability to brand the non-negligent retailer a joint tortfeasor under the Uniform Act may create an unjust result. The non-negligent retailer is bootstrapped from being only an insurer of the manufacturer's liability to the plaintiff into carrying a portion of the burden of unrelated torts.

The doctrine of contribution is deeply rooted in the principles of equity, fair play and justice. See e. g., Panichella v. Pennsylvania Railroad Company, 167 F.Supp. 345 (W.D.Pa....