Thermos Co. v. Spence

• Decision Date: 12 August 1999
• Parties: THERMOS COMPANY v. Elaine SPENCE et al.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

735 A.2d 484

1999 ME 129

THERMOS COMPANY v. Elaine SPENCE et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Argued May 3, 1999.

Decided August 12, 1999.

Thomas R. McKeon, (orally), Wendell G. Large, Richardson, Whitman, Large & Badger, P.C., Portland, for plaintiff.

Marshall J. Tinkle, (orally), David M. Hirshon, Tompkins, Clough, Hirshon & Langer, P.A., Portland, for defendant.

Before WATHEN, C.J., and CLIFFORD, RUDMAN, DANA, SAUFLEY, and CALKINS, JJ.

SAUFLEY, J.

[¶ 1] We are called upon in this matter to determine whether an action for contribution among allegedly joint tortfeasors carries with it a constitutional right to trial by jury. Because we conclude that it does, we affirm the order of the Superior Court (York County, Bradford, A.R.J.).

I. BACKGROUND

[¶ 2] The Thermos Company alleges that, on July 6, 1993, Gary and Celeste Winton were injured in a fire caused when flammable gas leaked from a propane gas cylinder manufactured by Thermos and filled by employees of the Perkins General Store in North Berwick, Maine. The Wintons filed a complaint against Thermos. The complaint did not name the owners of the Perkins General Store as defendants, and Thermos did not move to join them in the action. See generally M.R. Civ. P. 14(a). Thermos entered into a settlement agreement with the Wintons, paying 2.7 million dollars in settlement of their claims.

[¶ 3] Thermos then filed this action seeking contribution from Elaine Spence and Frederick Perkins, owners of the Perkins General Store, claiming that the conflagration in which the Wintons were injured was caused, at least in part, by the negligence of the employee of the Perkins General Store who overfilled the Wintons' propane gas cylinder. [¶ 4] Spence and Perkins requested a jury trial, and the matter was placed on the jury trial list. Thermos's motion to remove the case from the jury trial list was denied by the Superior Court. The court then granted Thermos's motion to report the action to the Law Court pursuant to M.R. Civ. P. 72(c). Spence and Perkins do not challenge the report.

[¶ 5] We recognize the issue as one of several as yet unresolved issues regarding the effects of settlement in actions sounding in tort.¹ Because the report directly raises a question of the fundamental rights of one or more parties to trial by jury, we have accepted the report. Cf. Sirois v. Winslow, 585 A.2d 183, 184-85 (Me.1991)

(the Court will not accept constitutional issues on report where the issues are "in the abstract."); accord Matheson v. Bangor Publishing Co., 414 A.2d 1203, 1205 (Me.1980); Swanson v. Roman Catholic Bishop, 1997 ME 63, ¶ 16, 692 A.2d 441, 446 (Lipez, J., dissenting). We limit our analysis, however, to the question directly presented: whether the Superior Court erred by denying Thermos's motion to remove this case from the jury trial list.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

[¶ 6] Thermos argues that the right to contribution between joint tortfeasors is an equitable remedy for which there is no right to a jury trial under the Maine Constitution. While Thermos cannot claim a constitutional right to a nonjury trial, cf. State v. Bleyl, 435 A.2d 1349, 1366 (Me. 1981),

its consent is required for a jury trial in a case in which "a right of trial by jury ... does not exist under the Constitution or statutes of the State of Maine." M.R. Civ. P. 39(a); see also M.R. Civ. P. 39(d) (requiring consent of the parties for trial by advisory jury of actions not triable of right by a jury). We review de novo the Superior Court's conclusion that Spence and Perkins are entitled to a jury trial of Thermos's contribution action. See Collins v. Trius, Inc., 663 A.2d 570, 572 (Me. 1995).

III. THE RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL IN CIVIL CASES

[¶ 7] A party's right to a jury trial in civil matters may be founded in statute or in the Maine Constitution.² The Legislature has not provided a statutory right to a trial by jury that would apply to this case.³ Spence and Perkins must therefore look to the constitution for the right to have their case tried to a jury. The constitution provides: "In all civil suits . . . the parties shall have a right to a trial by jury, except in cases where it has heretofore been otherwise practiced." Me. Const. art. I, § 20.

[¶ 8] When a new cause of action, unknown at the time the constitution was adopted, is created by the Legislature or recognized by the court, the right to a jury trial will depend on the nature of that new cause of action. If the nature of the claim is such that "its pre-1820 analogue was not tried to a jury" the new cause of action will similarly carry no such right. City of Portland v. DePaolo, 531 A.2d 669, 671 (Me.1987); see also Portland Pipe Line Corp. v. Environmental Improvement Comm'n, 307 A.2d 1, 29 (Me.1973) (When the new cause of action "includes features that render it equitable in nature, there is no requirement of a jury trial as a matter of right."); accord Thompson v. Pendleton, 1997 ME 127, ¶ 10, 697 A.2d 56, 58

; Kennebec Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass'n v. Kueter, 1997 ME 123, ¶ 4, 695 A.2d 1201, 1202; Town of Falmouth v. Long, 578 A.2d 1168, 1172 (Me.1990). On the other hand, when "`a plaintiff seeks damages as full compensation for an injury, the claim is legal and the plaintiff is entitled to a jury trial.'" DesMarais v. Desjardins, 664 A.2d 840, 844 (Me.1995) (quoting King v. King, 507 A.2d 1057, 1059 (Me.1986)).

[¶ 9] Accordingly, when a court is called upon to determine whether a right to a jury trial attaches to a new cause of action, it is required to determine the nature of the cause of action, identify a pre-1820 analogue to that cause of action, and determine the treatment of that analogue prior to 1820.

[¶ 10] We must therefore determine, first, the nature of an action for contribution, specifically, the nature of the issues to be tried and the remedy sought, see Cyr v. Cote, 396 A.2d 1013, 1016 (Me.1979),

quoted in DesMarais, 664 A.2d at 844; second, the applicable pre-1820 analogues; and finally, whether the analogues were triable of right to a jury prior to the adoption of the constitution.

IV. THE NATURE OF CONTRIBUTION ACTIONS

[¶ 11] Modern contribution actions between tortfeasors actually contain two significant components. The first component involves the determination of the contribution defendant's liability for damages to the original injured party. The issues for adjudication in this portion of a contribution action — negligence, causation, damages — are matters for which there is, and has always been, a right to a jury trial.⁴

[¶ 12] We addressed this component of a contribution action in Packard v. Whitten, 274 A.2d 169 (Me.1971). Although we referred to contribution as an equitable right, we set out the following analysis of the nature of a contribution claim:

The right of one joint tort-feasor to contribution from another is a derivative right based upon a final determination that negligence of the . . . defendant contributed to the . . . injury. This determination may be made by a judgment in favor of the injured party or, when the injured party has not included the [contribution] defendant in his action, by a finding of concurring negligence which would have entitled the injured party to such a judgment if he had sought one.

Id. at 174 (citations omitted) (emphasis added).

[¶ 13] As we recognized in Packard, a contribution action has at its core the determination of liability for the original injury. A defendant in a contribution action cannot be required to contribute to damages owed by another tortfeasor unless the contribution defendant has been found to have been a cause of the damages to the original injured party through the contribution defendant's own negligence. The determination of liability for injury in this context has always been triable of right to a jury.

[¶ 14] The second component in a contribution action involves the apportionment of financial responsibility between or among tortfeasors. This component did not have a clear existence in 1820 because, although recognized in other contexts,⁵ contribution actions between tortfeasors were not cognizable in the jurisprudence preceding the adoption of the Maine Constitution. See W. PAGE KEETON ET AL., PROSSER AND KEETON ON THE LAW OF TORTS § 50 at 336-37 (5th ed.1984) (discussing seminal case of Merryweather v. Nixan, 1799, 8 Term. Rep. 186, 101 Eng. Rep. 1337, in which Lord Kenyon held that such a claim would not lie because it rested entirely on the plaintiff's own deliberate wrong).

[¶ 15] The right to contribution between joint tortfeasors in Maine did not arise until 1918. Unlike many other states, Maine's recognition of the cause of action arose out of judicial, not legislative, action.⁶ In Hobbs v. Hurley, 117 Me. 449, 104 A. 815 (1918), we declared for the first time, that contribution from a joint tortfeasor "is an equitable right founded on acknowledged principles of natural justice and enforceable in a court of law." Id. at 451, 104 A. 815.

[¶ 16] Since that time we have consistently referred to contribution as a claim arising from concepts that were equitable in nature. In Bedell v. Reagan, 159 Me. 292, 192 A.2d 24 (1963), we explained the equitable component more explicitly:

It is of the very proper object of equity to prevent the application of a universal legal principle in an eventuality where unconscionable and unjustifiable hardship must otherwise ensue.

Id. at 298, 192 A.2d 24 (emphasis added). See also Emery Waterhouse Co. v. Lea, 467 A.2d 986, 996 (Me.1983)

; Otis Elevator Co. v. F.W. Cunningham & Sons, 454 A.2d 335, 337 (Me.1983); Roberts v. American Chain & Cable Co., 259 A.2d 43, 49-50 (Me.1969).

[¶ 17] Most recently, in St. Paul Ins. Co. v. Hayes, 676 A.2d 510 (Me.1996), we concluded that "[a]n action for contribution is an equitable action and not one for damages." Id. at 512. In St. Paul we were called upon to determine whether a statute of limitations that was applicable to certain actions "`for...