Browder v. Morris

• Decision Date: 31 August 1998
• Parties: Charles R. BROWDER and Teresa Noland Browder, Plaintiffs/Appellants, v. Jerry C. MORRIS and Chris Castleberry, et al., Defendants/Appellees.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

Page 308

975 S.W.2d 308

Charles R. BROWDER and Teresa Noland Browder, Plaintiffs/Appellants, v. Jerry C. MORRIS and Chris Castleberry, et al., Defendants/Appellees.

Supreme Court of Tennessee,

at Jackson.

Aug. 31, 1998.

Randall J. Fishman, Mark A. Mesler, Ballin, Ballin & Fishman, P.C., Memphis, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.

J. Cecil McWhirter, McWhirter & Wyatt, Memphis, for Defendants-Appellees Morris and Castleberry.

Robert L. Moore, Andrea N. Malkin, Thomas, Hendrix, Harvey, Johnson & Mitchell, Memphis, for Defendant-Appellee Paul Davis Systems, Inc.

James W. Cook, Card, Cook & Holt, Memphis, for Defendant-Appellee General Accident Group.

OPINION

DROWOTA, Justice.

In this negligence action, the plaintiffs-appellants, Charles and Teresa Browder, have appealed from the Court of Appeals' decision to affirm the trial court's denial of a motion seeking to amend their complaint for personal injuries filed against the defendants-appellees, Jerry Morris and Chris Castleberry. The plaintiffs' motion, which sought to name an additional party to the suit, was made pursuant to Tenn.Code Ann. § 20-1-119. This statute allots a plaintiff in a comparative fault case additional time beyond the running of the applicable statute of limitations to name as a defendant an unnamed person or entity alleged by a defendant to have "caused or contributed to the injury or damage for which the plaintiff seeks recovery." Tenn.Code Ann. § 20-1-119(a). The issue we must decide is whether Tenn.Code Ann. § 20-1-119 permits adding to the suit unnamed persons or entities whose liability is vicarious only. For the reasons explained hereafter, we conclude that it does. Accordingly, the decision of the lower courts to deny the plaintiffs' motion to amend their complaint to name an additional party pursuant to Tenn.Code Ann. § 20-1-119 is reversed. ¹

BACKGROUND

According to the plaintiffs' complaint filed on July 25, 1994, Charles Browder was involved in an automobile accident with Jerry Morris on July 26, 1993. The plaintiffs asserted that Morris was negligently driving a car owned by Chris Castleberry, and that both Morris and Castleberry were liable to the plaintiffs. ² Morris and Castleberry, along with the plaintiffs' uninsured motorist insurer, General Accident Insurance Company ("General Accident"), filed answers to the complaint. General Accident subsequently amended its answer on October 19, 1995, to name Morris' employer, Paul Davis Systems, Inc., as an unnamed defendant. General Accident asserted in its amended answer that Morris was acting within the scope of his employment with Paul Davis Systems at the time of the accident. Therefore, Paul Davis Systems was vicariously liable for the negligence of Morris. ³

In response to General Accident's amended answer naming Paul Davis Systems as an unnamed defendant, the plaintiffs moved to amend their complaint on November 2, 1995, to add Paul Davis Systems as a defendant in the suit. Paul Davis Systems opposed the motion on the grounds that Tenn.Code Ann. § 20-1-119 was not applicable to this case and, therefore, the plaintiffs' cause of action against it was barred by the statute of limitations. Paul Davis Systems claimed that since its liability was vicarious only in that it did not cause or contribute to the plaintiffs' injuries, it could not be added as a party under Tenn.Code Ann. § 20-1-119.

The trial court denied the plaintiffs' motion to amend their complaint to name Paul Davis Systems as a defendant. On interlocutory appeal, the Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court. The appeals court held that Tenn.Code Ann. § 20-1-119 did not apply to those persons or entities who are vicariously liable for a plaintiff's injury. The court "assumed that the legislature carefully chose and purposely used the words 'caused or contributed to' [in Tenn.Code Ann. § 20-1-119(a) ]. These words must be construed to mean what they say. Under their plain meaning, the statute limits a plaintiff to additionally name only those defendants who allegedly 'caused or contributed to' the plaintiff's injuries. By definition, one who is vicariously liable is not one who has 'caused or contributed to' another's injuries." Because Paul Davis Systems neither caused nor contributed to the plaintiffs' injuries, but was vicariously liable only, the Court of Appeals held that the trial court correctly denied the plaintiffs' motion to name Paul Davis Systems as an additional defendant. Thereafter, we granted review to determine whether Tenn.Code Ann. § 20-1-119 contemplates naming vicariously liable nonparties as defendants.

ANALYSIS

I.

In McIntyre v. Balentine, 833 S.W.2d 52 (Tenn.1992), we adopted a system of modified comparative fault. Under this system, a plaintiff can recover so long as the plaintiff's negligence is less than the defendant's negligence. In such a case, the plaintiff's damages are reduced to reflect his degree of fault. Id. at 57. With regard to attributing fault to nonparties, we stated in McIntyre that

fairness and efficiency require that defendants called upon to answer allegations [of] negligence be permitted to allege, as an affirmative defense, that a nonparty caused or contributed to the injury or damage for which recovery is sought. In cases where such a defense is raised, the trial court shall instruct the jury to assign this nonparty the percentage of the total negligence for which he is responsible. However, in order for a plaintiff to recover a judgment against such additional person, the plaintiff must have made a timely amendment to his complaint and caused process to be served on such additional person.

McIntyre, 833 S.W.2d at 58 (emphasis added). We thus recognized in McIntyre that a defendant in a comparative fault case can attempt to shift some or all of the legal responsibility to another by alleging that a nonparty "caused or contributed" to the plaintiff's injury. We also anticipated a statute of limitations predicament for some plaintiffs because a defendant could plead the fault of a nonparty after the statute of limitations had run against that nonparty, thus preventing the plaintiff from adding the nonparty to the suit. Any fault attributed to the time-barred nonparty would then not be recoverable by the plaintiff.

In an effort to respond to this problem, the legislature enacted Tenn.Code Ann. § 20-1-119. This statute provides in pertinent part:

Comparative fault--Joinder of third party defendants.--(a) In civil actions where comparative fault is or becomes an issue, if a defendant named in an original complaint initiating a suit filed within the applicable statute of limitations, or named in an amended complaint filed within the applicable statute of limitations, alleges in an answer or amended answer to the original or amended complaint that a person not a party to the suit caused or contributed to the injury or damage for which the plaintiff seeks recovery, and if the plaintiff's cause or causes of action against such person would be barred by any applicable statute of limitations but for the operation of this section, the plaintiff, may, within ninety (90) days of the filing of the first answer or first amended answer alleging such person's fault, either:

(1) Amend the complaint to add such person as a defendant pursuant to Rule 15 of the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure and cause process to be issued for that person; or

(2) Institute a separate action against that person by filing a summons and complaint....

(b) A cause of action brought within ninety (90) days pursuant to subsection (a) shall not be barred by any statute of limitations. This section shall not extend any applicable statute of repose.... (Emphasis added).

The construction of a statute is a question of law which appellate courts review de novo, with no presumption of correctness. Myint v. Allstate Ins. Co., 970 S.W.2d 920 (Tenn.1998). The cardinal rule of statutory construction is to effectuate legislative intent, with all rules of construction being aides to that end. Id. at 926; Locust v. State, 912 S.W.2d 716, 718 (Tenn.App.1995). We must initially look to the language of the statute itself in determining the intent of the legislature. Courts are restricted to the natural and ordinary meaning of the language used by the legislature in the statute, unless an ambiguity requires resort elsewhere to ascertain legislative intent. Austin v. Memphis Pub. Co., 655 S.W.2d 146, 148 (Tenn.1983). A statute is ambiguous if it is capable of conveying more than one meaning. In re Conservatorship of Clayton, 914 S.W.2d 84, 90 (Tenn.App.1995). We must consider the language employed in context of the entire statute without any forced or subtle construction which would extend or limit its meaning. Wilson v. Johnson County, 879 S.W.2d 807, 809 (Tenn.1994). Furthermore, we are to assume that the legislature used each word in the statute purposely, and that the use of these words conveys some intent and has a meaning and purpose. Locust, 912 S.W.2d at 718. Where words of the statute are clear and plain and fully express the legislature's intent, there is no room to resort to auxiliary rules of construction, Roberson v. University of Tennessee, 912 S.W.2d 746, 747 (Tenn.App.1995), and we need only enforce the statute as written, Clayton, 914 S.W.2d at 90.

II.

The parties in this case agree that resolving the issue before us requires an interpretation of the language "caused or contributed to" as used in Tenn.Code Ann. § 20-1-119(a). Relying upon the legislative history of Tenn.Code Ann. § 20-1-119, the plaintiffs argue that the legislature did not intend to exclude vicariously liable nonparties from the group of potential defendants that can be joined under the statute. The plaintiffs also rely upon post-McIntyre case law, namely Camper v. Minor, 915 S.W.2d 437 (Tenn.1996), for the proposition that the doctrine of vicarious liability continues to be viable after the adoption of comparative fault.

We...