Theobald v. Kenney's Suburban House, Inc.

• Citation: 48 N.J. 203,225 A.2d 10
• Decision Date: 05 December 1966
• Docket Number: No. A--16,A--16
• Parties: Robert THEOBALD, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. KENNEY'S SUBURBAN HOUSE, INC., a corporation of the State of New Jersey, Defendant-Respondent.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court (New Jersey)

Page 203

48 N.J. 203

225 A.2d 10

Robert THEOBALD, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. KENNEY'S SUBURBAN HOUSE, INC., a corporation of the State of New Jersey, Defendant-Respondent.

No. A--16.

Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Argued Oct. 10, 1966.

Decided Dec. 5, 1966.

Frank E. Vittori, Camden, for appellant (John H. Reiners, Jr., Camden, attorney).

Michael Patrick King, Camden, for respondent (Kisselman, Devine, Deighan & Montano, Camden, attorneys).

The opinion of the court was delivered by

WEINTRAUB, C.J.

The trial court held that a claimant who received satisfaction of a judgment against one tortfeasor was thereby barred from suing a co-tortfeasor. Plaintiff appealed and we certified the cause before argument in the Appellate Division.

I

This is the third appeal before us arising out of an accident which happened this way: A car driven by one Anderson went out of control and came to rest partly on plaintiff's property and partly on the street. Angelos, a police officer of Delaware Township, responded to a call and parked the police car behind Anderson's. Conaty crashed into the rear of the police car, thereby crushing plaintiff who was standing between the police car and Anderson's vehicle.

Plaintiff sued Conaty. Conaty brought in Anderson and Angelos and Angelos' employer, the township, claiming a right of contribution against them as joint tortfeasors. Plaintiff then amended his complaint to name those additional parties as co-defendants.

Prior to trial, plaintiff settled with Anderson for $1,500 and with Conaty for $88,500. The trial against Angelos and the township resulted in a verdict of $65,000. On plaintiff's appeal we found the charge to the jury was not clear with respect to whether the verdict should be in the full amount of plaintiff's damages and hence we ordered a new trial as to damages only, reserving for later consideration the issues concerning the impact of the settlements with Anderson and Conaty upon the amount of the liability of Angelos and his employer. Theobald v. Angelos, 40 N.J. 295, 191 A.2d 465 (1963).

Upon the retrial, the jury fixed the total damages at $165,000. With respect to the $1,500 settlement with Anderson, the trial court held that Angelos and the township (they are considered as one for the purpose of contribution) were entitled to a Pro tanto credit in the sum of $1,500, rather than a Pro rata credit of one-third of the jury verdict, and this because Anderson had been found by the jury to be free of negligence. As to the settlement with Conaty for $88,500, which sum exceeded Conaty's Pro rata (50%) share of the verdict of $165,000, the trial court held that the judgment debtors were entitled only to the Pro rata credit. We affirmed. Theobald v. Angelos, 44 N.J. 228, 208 A.2d 129 (1965).

The present appeal involves a separate suit brought by plaintiff for the same injuries against Kenney's Suburban House, Inc. (herein Kenney), the operator of a restaurant, on a charge that it too was at fault in that it sold liquor to Conaty when he was intoxicated, in breach of a duty we recognized in Rappaport v. Nichols, 31 N.J. 188, 156 A.2d 1, 75 A.L.R.2d 821 (1959). Kenney contended that plaintiff could not maintain the action because the judgment against Angelos and the township had been paid and satisfied of record. As we have said, the trial court agreed and gave judgment for the defendant.

Plaintiff agrees he cannot obtain more than one full satisfaction for his injuries and losses, but says in substance that their full value is the highest sum awarded against any of the tortfeasors and hence it cannot be known whether he has been fully paid until a verdict is had in this suit against Kenney. We think the trial court correctly rejected that proposition for the reasons which follow.

II

Joint tortfeasors being severally as well as jointly liable, the injured party may pursue them in separate actions, see Kennedy v. Camp, 14 N.J. 390, 395, 102 A.2d 595 (1954), subject of course to motions to consolidate. But it is generally agreed that if the claimant receives ¹ satisfaction of a judgment against one, his rights against all are thereby concluded. Restatement of Judgments § 95 (1942); 4 Restatement of Torts § 886 (1939); Prosser, Torts § 45, p. 268 (1964); 1 Harper and James, Torts § 10.1, p. 710 (1956); 30A Am.Jur., Judgments § 1007, p. 865; 52 Am.Jur., Torts § 131, p. 467; Annotations, 166 A.L.R. 1099 (1947); 65 A.L.R. 1087 (1930); 27 A.L.R. 805 (1923).

The precise issue seems to have been involved in our State only in Vattani v. Damiano, 9 N.J.Misc. 290, 153 A. 841 (Cir.Ct.1931), where the satisfaction of a judgment was held to bar a suit against another alleged tortfeasor, and this even though the judgment was entered by consent and expressly provided that neither its entry nor its satisfaction would prejudice such other suits. The precise result there reached is debatable and we express no view with respect to it, but the case does reflect an understanding in our State that the satisfaction of a judgment against one tortfeasor, at least in a contested case, satisfies plaintiff's claim against all co-tortfeasors. Thus when the present litigation was first before us, we included in our summary of the common law rules the proposition that the actual satisfaction of a judgment against one tortfeasor forecloses a claim against others liable for the same wrong. Theobald v. Angelos, supra, 40 N.J., at p. 301, 191 A.2d 465.

Plaintiff does not challenge this view of the common law but says the adoption of our statute providing for contribution among tortfeasors nullified it and permits the injured party to collect successively from joint tortfeasors up to the amount of the largest judgment. One case has so held with respect to the 1939 Uniform Contribution among Tortfeasors Act. Hackett v. Hyson, 72 R.I. 132, 48 A.2d 353, 166 A.L.R. 1096 (Sup.Ct.1946). The thesis of that decision is that the statute placed the satisfaction of a judgment on a par with the execution of a general release, the sum received therefor to be applied Pro tanto in payment of the judgment against another tortfeasor as that statute provides with respect to a release. The same result was reached under the Arkansas contribution statute with respect, however, to a 'friendly' judgment 'placed on the court records for the sole purpose of making the settlement more binding.' Smith v. Tipps Engineering & Supply Co., 231 Ark. 952, 333 S.W.2d 483 (Sup.Ct.1960); see Albright Bros. Contractors, Inc. v. Hull-Dobbs Co., 209 F.2d 103 (6 Cir. 1953). On the other hand, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, expressly declining to follow Hackett, held that under the 1939 uniform statute the satisfaction of a judgment entered against one tortfeasor upon a full trial did discharge the other joint tortfeasors. Hilbert v. Roth, 395 Pa. 270, 149 A.2d 648 (Sup.Ct.1959); See also to the same effect, Raleigh v. Peterson (Peterson v. Follett), 165 F.Supp. 47 (M.D.Pa.1958).

In Hackett, the Rhode Island court turned the result primarily on section 3 of the 1939 uniform statute, 9 U.L.A. 241, which provided that 'The Recovery of a judgment by the injured person against one joint tortfeasor does not discharge the other joint tortfeasors.' The court read 'recovery,' which we have italicized, to mean the 'recovery' of the moneys represented by the judgment and hence the collection of the judgment rather than its mere entry. But it seems probable that the National Conference of Commissioners meant no more by section 3 than to codify the general rule that the mere entry of a judgment does not discharge other tortfeasors, and in the 1955 version of the uniform statute the Commissioners made it clear that they intended no more. Thus section 3(e) of the 1955 proposal, 9 U.L.A. (Supp.1965), p. 124, reads:

'The recovery of a judgment for an injury or wrongful death against one tortfeasor does not of itself discharge the other tortfeasors from liability for the injury or wrongful death Unless the judgment is satisfied. The satisfaction of the judgment does not impair any right of contribution.' (Emphasis added.)

The Commissioners' comment tells us that section 3(e) 'simply states the well established rule that the injured party in obtaining judgment against one joint tortfeasor does not thereby discharge the others, although there may, of course, be but one satisfaction of the claim.' We add that our Legislature did not adopt section 3 of the 1939 uniform act, and hence we do not have the provision which the Rhode Island court found to be pivotal.

The essential thesis of our statute is that a tortfeasor who pays a judgment in whole or in part 'shall be entitled to recover contribution from the other joint tortfeasor or joint tortfeasors for the excess so paid over his Pro rata share.' N.J.S. 2A:53A--3, N.J.S.A. It seems to us that this statutory theme, far from contradicting the common law rule with respect to the satisfaction of a judgment, actually supplies a need for it. This is so because otherwise a defendant might be denied the protection of the judgment plaintiff obtained against him. Here, for example, Angelos and the township are entitled to seek to recover from Kenney, if Kenney is a co-tortfeasor, the excess paid by them over their Pro rata one-third share of the satisfied judgment in the sum of $165,000. But if plaintiff obtained against Kenney a judgment either larger or smaller than the...