Clarke v. Volkswagen of America, Inc.

• Decision Date: 07 September 1976
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 73-11-W.
• Citation: 419 F. Supp. 74
• Parties: William CLARKE, Jr., by and through John T. Carpenter his attorney and next friend, Plaintiff, v. VOLKSWAGEN OF AMERICA, INC., Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Iowa

419 F. Supp. 74

William CLARKE, Jr., by and through John T. Carpenter his attorney and next friend, Plaintiff, v. VOLKSWAGEN OF AMERICA, INC., Defendant.

Civ. No. 73-11-W.

United States District Court, S. D. Iowa, W. D.

September 7, 1976.

Martin A. Cannon, of Matthews, Kelley, Cannon & Carpenter, P.C., Omaha, Neb., and Raymond E. Pogge, of Pogge, Root & Steege, Council Bluffs, Iowa, for plaintiff.

Philip Willson, of Smith, Peterson, Beckman & Willson, Council Bluffs, Iowa, for defendant.

ORDER

HANSON, Chief Judge.

William Clarke, Jr., sustained serious personal injuries on June 25, 1968 when a Volkswagen automobile in which he was riding left the paved portion of Interstate 80 in western Iowa. On February 20, 1970 Clarke sued the car's driver, George A. Burkle, in this Court. Burkle was the sole defendant to that lawsuit, which was given Civil No. 3-837-W. After certain discovery had been conducted in the case, the parties entered into a stipulation that judgment could be entered "in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendant in the sum of $50,000, and the costs of this action." Pursuant to this stipulation, on November 16, 1970 a judgment entry in the amount of $50,000, signed by the Honorable Roy L. Stephenson, was filed in this Court. On November 19, 1970 plaintiff filed a satisfaction of that judgment. Said satisfaction recited that the judgment "had been fully paid and satisfied and the Clerk is hereby authorized to enter satisfaction of record of said judgment." No further proceedings have ever transpired in that case.

The pending action was filed against Volkswagen on June 8, 1973. Named as plaintiff is William Clarke, Jr., by and through John T. Carpenter, his attorney and next friend.¹ As in the prior lawsuit, damages are sought for the injuries Clarke sustained in the 1968 accident. Presently pending before the Court is defendant's motion for summary judgment, which asserts that the plaintiff's satisfaction of the previous judgment against the driver "constitutes a bar to the instant action." The issue must be resolved under Iowa law.

Numerous decisions of state and federal courts in Iowa have addressed the problems which arise when a plaintiff settles or adjudicates his claim against one joint tortfeasor and then pursues it against another. Certain general principles can be distilled from these decisions. It has long been the law in this state that "there can be but one satisfaction for a wrong." Metz v. Soule, 40 Iowa 236, 238 (1875). In the case of joint tortfeasors, even though all wrongdoers are jointly and severally liable, "complete satisfaction by one operates as a discharge of all." Miller v. Beck, 108 Iowa 575, 578, 79 N.W. 344 (1899). While it is true that a plaintiff can pursue his claim to separate judgments against numerous separate tortfeasors, "it is well settled that separate judgments against different defendants for the same tort cannot all be enforced. The satisfaction of one discharges the other." Putney v. O'Brien, 53 Iowa 117, 121, 4 N.W. 891, 894 (1880); McDonald v. Nugen, 118 Iowa 512, 513, 92 N.W. 675 (1902); Cushing v. Hederman, 117 Iowa 637, 639, 91 N.W. 940 (1902).

The applicability of these general aspects of Iowa law to the facts of this case can hardly be questioned. Accepting as true the complaints in this action and the Burkle case, the respective defendants are clearly joint tortfeasors. Their alleged wrongful acts have combined to cause one incident of personal injury to the plaintiff— the June 25, 1968 accident. Further, the complaints seek damages for the identical injury: plaintiff's suffering of a "fracture dislocation of the neck at C4 and C5, rendering him totally quadriplegic, and causing him total respiratory failure. He will so remain for the rest of his life." ¶ V, Burkle complaint; ¶ VI, Volkswagen complaint. The parties have argued this motion from the premise that Burkle and Volkswagen are, at most, joint tortfeasors, and the Court deems this to be a proper view of the law. See Frank v. Volkswagenwerk, A.G. of West Germany, 522 F.2d 321, 323 (3d Cir. 1975); Courtesy Chevrolet, Inc. v. Beech, 347 F.Supp. 669, 671-72 (M.D.Tenn.1972).

Given the presence of joint tortfeasors, Iowa law clearly dictates that if Clarke had fully litigated his claim against Burkle before a jury or the Court, and judgment in his favor was subsequently entered and fully satisfied, his cause of action against Volkswagen would be discharged by virtue of the prior satisfaction. Miller v. Beck, supra; Hutchinson v. Treloar, 229 Iowa 513, 514, 294 N.W. 787 (1940); Bolton v. Ziegler, 111 F.Supp. 516, 525 (N.D.Iowa 1953). In such a situation, full adjudication of the plaintiff's claim would compel the conclusion that the amount awarded constitutes "the complete equivalent of the plaintiff's damages." Prosser, Law of Torts, § 48 at 300 (4th ed. 1971); Pillo v. Reading Company, 232 F.Supp. 761, 762 (E.D.Pa.1964). The problem here, of course, is that there has been no prior adjudication of plaintiff's damages by a finder of facts. Judgment in the amount of $50,000 was entered against Burkle upon the parties' stipulation. Based on the presence of this agreed-to settlement, counsel for plaintiff argue that his intent in settling the prior case governs the effect to be given the filed satisfaction of judgment. That intent is asserted to be a question of fact, and therefore summary judgment is urged to be inappropriate. Under this view the question of the effect, if any, to be given the prior satisfaction of judgment would be submitted to the jury in this case in the context of an affirmative defense.

It is true that under Community School District of Postville v. Gordon N. Peterson, Inc., 176 N.W.2d 169 (Iowa 1970), the intention of the parties who enter into a release will control its subsequent interpretation when that release is relied upon by a joint tortfeasor as a bar to a subsequent suit against him. Id. at 175. In such a situation, factual issues as to intent will usually exist. Here, however, no "release" as such was executed. Instead, a judgment was entered by a United States District Judge, and an unambiguous and unqualified satisfaction of that judgment was filed. The question thus boils down to whether that judgment entry and satisfaction can be qualified by extrinsic evidence in a subsequent and separate lawsuit. It is the Court's conclusion that they cannot. Plaintiff's current position amounts to a collateral attack on a prior judgment, and the Court will not entertain it in this case.

As previously stated, defendant's pending motion would meet with prompt success had the prior lawsuit been submitted to a fact-finder and been fully adjudicated. The crucial question raised under this record goes to the effect to be given the agreed-upon judgment and the filed satisfaction thereof. In City of Chariton v. J. C. Blunk Construction Company, 253 Iowa 805, 112 N.W.2d 829 (1962), the Iowa Supreme Court rejected an invitation that it "agree that a consent judgment is not an adjudication against the parties." Id. at 833. In so doing, the Court quoted authorities to the effect that "it is well settled . . . that a judgment or decree, though entered by consent or agreement of the parties, is res adjudicata to the same extent as if entered after contest," and that such a judgment "has substantially the same effect as any other judgment rendered in ordinary course." Id. This view states the general law. See, e. g., Traveler's Insurance Co. v. United States, 283 F.Supp. 14, 28-29 (S.D.Texas 1968); SEC v. Thermodynamics, Inc., 319 F.Supp. 1380, 1382 (D.Colo.1970), aff'd 464 F.2d 457 (10th Cir. 1972); A. D. Juilliard and Co., Inc. v. Johnson, 166 F.Supp. 577, 585 (S.D.N.Y. 1957), aff'd 259 F.2d 837 (2d Cir. 1958), cert. denied, 359 U.S. 942, 79 S.Ct. 723, 3 L.Ed.2d 676 (1959). Thus, the agreed-upon judgment entry in Clarke v. Burkle, Civil No. 3-837-W, stands on the same footing as if it had been preceded by a full-blown trial. Under Iowa law, however, the mere obtaining of a judgment did not foreclose Clarke's ability to seek redress against other tortfeasors. Putney v. O'Brien, supra; McDonald v. Nugen, supra. Plaintiff could have pursued any and all other tortfeasors to judgments, and chosen which judgment to satisfy. Rather than proceed directly against Volkswagen, however, the Burkle judgment was satisfied. This satisfaction had the effect of discharging Volkswagen. Miller v. Beck, supra; Restatement, Torts §§ 885, 886; Restatement, Judgments § 95.

While plaintiff attempts to evade the impact of the Burkle satisfaction by arguing that it was not intended to discharge anyone else, the language of the satisfaction reflects no such reservation. It is entitled "Satisfaction of Judgment" and states that the $50,000 judgment, with costs, "has been fully paid and satisfied and the Clerk is hereby authorized and directed to enter satisfaction of record of said judgment." While the Court has found no Iowa case directly on point with this factual situation, direct authorities from other jurisdictions indicate that plaintiff's present efforts to undo the effects of this unequivocal satisfaction must fail.

The case of Colby v. Walker, 86 N.H. 568, 171 A. 774, 104 A.L.R. 840 (1934) is most directly on point with this case. Colby arose out of an auto accident. Plaintiff, Rose Colby, was injured when the car in which she was riding collided with an auto driven by one Wilson. Rose Colby sued both drivers; her husband filed a parallel suit. In both cases the plaintiffs' claims against Wilson were "settled and marked judgment by agreement and judgment satisfied."² 104 A.L.R. 840, 841. The defendant driver, Walker, who did not settle with the Colbys, urged by motion to dismiss that plaintiffs' settlement with Wilson operated to discharge him from liability. The trial court agreed with Walker, and the New Hampshire Supreme Court affirmed his discharge. The Court initially noted...