Piner v. Superior Court In and For County of Maricopa

• Decision Date: 21 July 1998
• Docket Number: No. CV-96-0577-PR,CV-96-0577-PR
• Citation: 962 P.2d 909,192 Ariz. 182
• Parties: William Henry PINER, a single man, Petitioner, v. SUPERIOR COURT of the State of Arizona, In and For the COUNTY OF MARICOPA, the Honorable Ruth H. Hilliard, and the Honorable Christopher M. Skelly, judges thereof, Respondent Judges, Billy Donald JONES and Jane Doe Jones, husband and wife; Loling Rabino and John Doe Rabino, husband and wife; Cynthia Gale Richardson and John Doe Richardson, husband and wife, Real Parties in Interest.
• Court: Arizona Supreme Court

Page 909

962 P.2d 909

192 Ariz. 182

William Henry PINER, a single man, Petitioner, v. SUPERIOR COURT of the State of Arizona, In and For the COUNTY OF MARICOPA, the Honorable Ruth H. Hilliard, and the Honorable Christopher M. Skelly, judges thereof, Respondent Judges Billy Donald JONES and Jane Doe Jones, husband and wife; Loling Rabino and John Doe Rabino, husband and wife; Cynthia Gale Richardson and John Doe Richardson, husband and wife, Real Parties in Interest.

No. CV-96-0577-PR.

Supreme Court of Arizona En Banc.

July 21, 1998.

Solomon, Relihan & Blake, P.C. by H. Micheal Wright, Kevin J. McAlonan, Phoenix, for Petitioner Piner.

Ricker & Bustamante, L.L.P. by Keith R. Ricker, Phoenix, for Real Parties in Interest Jones and Rabino.

Lewis and Roca, L.L.P. by Craig W. Phillips, Susan M. Freeman, Phoenix, for Real Parties in Interest Richardson.

Burke, Panzarella & Rich by Thomas P. Burke, II, Phoenix, for Amicus Curiae Arizona Association of Defense Counsel.

OPINION

FELDMAN, Justice.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶1 On his way to work on Friday, October 12, 1990, William Piner stopped his truck to let a pedestrian cross the street. While he was stopped, a car driven by Billy Jones hit Piner's truck from behind. Police were called to investigate the incident. Piner waited for the police to finish their investigation before calling his physician to complain of pain in his neck, upper back, left arm, and head. The doctor's staff told Piner that the doctor was unavailable but would call him back later that day. Piner then fixed the broken tail lights on his truck and went to work.

¶2 Later that day, Piner was driving to lunch when the car ahead of him stopped to let some pedestrians cross the street. Piner stopped and was again hit from the rear, this time by a vehicle driven by Cynthia Richardson. Feeling similar pain symptoms after this accident, Piner called his doctor's office and was again told that the doctor was occupied and would contact him later.

¶3 Piner was unable to see his physician until Monday. After examination, the doctor concluded that Piner suffered a number of injuries as a result of the collisions. Due to the nature of the injuries, however, neither she nor any other physician has been able to attribute any particular part of Piner's total injuries to one accident or the other.

¶4 Piner filed an action against Jones and Richardson (together "Defendants") alleging indivisible injuries resulting from the successive impacts. Neither defendant has asserted that he or she could apportion the particular physical harm Piner suffered between the separate accidents. Apparently, all parties agree that both collisions contributed to Piner's total physical injuries.

¶5 Piner moved for partial summary judgment, arguing that because his injuries are indivisible, Defendants should be held jointly and severally liable. See Holtz v. Holder, 101 Ariz. 247, 418 P.2d 584 (1966). According to Piner, in a successive accident, indivisible injury case, defendants have the burden of proving apportionment; if neither defendant can demonstrate what portion of the total damage he or she caused, they should be held jointly and severally liable for the entire amount. See id. at 251, 418 P.2d at 588.

¶6 Richardson responded that A.R.S. § 12-2506 abolished the system of joint and several liability, leaving only two exceptions in which the doctrine can still be invoked. See A.R.S. § 12-2506(D) and (F). Richardson concluded that because neither exception applied to Piner's claim, "the trier of fact must be directed to either apportion, or deny damages in this case." After hearing oral argument on the motion, the trial judge, in a June 4, 1996 order, denied Piner's motion for "the reasons stated [by] Defendant Richardson...."

¶7 When the parties met later for a pretrial conference with the newly assigned trial judge, the main issue in contention was what effect should be given the prior ruling denying Piner's motion for partial summary judgment on the issue of apportionment. Judge Hilliard stated that the previous ruling bound her to instruct the jury that Piner had the burden of proving apportionment of damages between the two collisions and that if he did not meet this burden, Piner could not recover. ¹ Recognizing the potentially devastating effect on Piner's case, the judge granted a continuance to allow Piner to file a special action in the nature of mandamus or prohibition to determine the propriety of the earlier ruling on apportionment. See Rules 1(a) and 3, Ariz.R.P.Spec.Act. The court of appeals declined jurisdiction of Piner's special action. We granted review to determine which rule of liability applies to cases in which successive acts of negligence combine to produce separate but indivisible injuries.

JURISDICTION

¶8 We do not favor accepting special action jurisdiction to review the propriety of interlocutory orders and pretrial rulings, such as orders granting or denying partial summary judgment or denying summary judgment. See In re Guardianship/Conservatorship of Denton, 190 Ariz. 152, 154, 945 P.2d 1283, 1285 (1997). We take that position because trial court rulings often reach us without a full factual record and because allowing endless, piecemeal review burdens the litigants and courts with prolonged and costly procedures. Were we to always consider these actions, we would "frustrate the expeditious resolution of claims, unnecessarily increase both appellate court caseload and interference with trial judges," thus giving appellate priority to those cases handled by the most litigious of counsel. Id. (quoting City of Phoenix v. Yarnell, 184 Ariz. 310, 315, 909 P.2d 377, 382 (1995)). This being said, we have recognized a few exceptional cases in which we will exercise our discretion to grant special action relief. See Bledsoe v. Goodfarb, 170 Ariz. 256, 258, 823 P.2d 1264, 1266 (1991).

¶9 In Denton, we recently described such exceptional circumstances as follows:

We believe the nature of the present case merits our acceptance of special action jurisdiction prior to final judgment. The elder abuse statute is relatively new, and the issue presented is one of first impression in Arizona. Trial courts are unclear as to how to decide this issue, which has resulted in contrary rulings in courts in the same county. The issue in this case is of statewide significance, affecting not just the parties involved, but all incapacitated and vulnerable adults and all adult care homes in our state. Further, the issue presented here is purely a question of law.

* * *

[An] elder abuse case that proceeds to trial without damages available for pain and suffering will often be senseless and futile. In this case, reasonably prompt justice can be satisfactorily obtained only through special action relief.

190 Ariz. at 154, 945 P.2d at 1285 (citations and footnotes omitted); see also Lind v. Superior Court, 191 Ariz. 233, 954 P.2d 1058 (App.1998). Of course, the list of circumstances outlined in Denton is not all-inclusive. We have, for instance, granted relief in a case brought as a special action simply because we believed we should speak to the issue of complex and prolix pleading. See Anserv Ins. Serv., Inc. v. Albrecht, 1998 WL 338169 (Ariz.1998) (special action to require trial judge to strike 266-page complaint).

¶10 We believe this is one of the few cases in which special action review is warranted. The facts are not contested, and the legal issue can properly be decided on the present record. See Summerfield v. Superior Court, 144 Ariz. 467, 469, 698 P.2d 712, 714 (1985) (special action jurisdiction granted to determine whether wrongful death statute encompassed death of stillborn, viable fetus). As in Denton and Summerfield, the interpretation given the statute here presents a question of first impression that will affect other cases in superior court. Normal "appellate procedures will result in unnecessary cost and delay to all litigants.... The congruence of [all] these factors militates in favor of our accepting jurisdiction." Id. Thus, we grant the petition for review from the court of appeals' order declining special action jurisdiction and proceed to the merits.

THE INDIVISIBLE INJURY RULE IN ARIZONA

A. Evolution of the rule of joint and several liability: Causation and apportionment of damages

¶11 Black-letter tort law tells us that as an essential element of the action, the plaintiff must provide evidence that the defendant's conduct caused plaintiff's damage. W. PAGE KEETON ET AL., PROSSER & KEETON ON THE LAW OF TORTS § 41, at 263 (5th ed.1984). A plaintiff's case failed if that plaintiff was unable to establish the damage attributable to a defendant's conduct. See id. The law eventually recognized an exception for multiple, culpable actors if the plaintiff, through no fault of his own, was unable to apportion causation for a single injury. In such instances, many courts placed the "burden of proof on the issue of causation [apportionment] upon the ... defendants.... [This] seems a very desirable solution where negligence on the part of both defendants is clear, and it is only the issue of causation which is in doubt, so that the choice must be made between letting a loss due to failure of proof fall upon the innocent plaintiff or the culpable defendants." Id. at 271.

¶12 The present case involves a somewhat different problem. Instead of producing a single injurious event, Defendants' successive acts of negligence resulted in two injuries yielding an indivisible result. The question nevertheless is causation, a concept that presents a "series of distinct problems, more or less unrelated" but includes "apportionment of damages among causes." Id. § 42, at 279.

¶13 Differentiating between doctrines involving joint tortfeasors acting in concert and joinder of defendants, Prosser's treatise approaches apportionment of damages as a separate topic. See id. §§ 46 and 47, at 322-30. The...