Tortfeasor

What Is A Tortfeasor?

A tortfeasor is any person, business, or government body whose breach of a legal duty causes harm for which the law provides a civil remedy. The term is neutral about the kind of wrong. A negligent driver is a tortfeasor; so is a landlord who ignores a broken stair, a manufacturer that ships a defective product, and a person who commits an assault. What makes someone a tortfeasor is liability in tort, not criminal guilt or moral blame.

The term also says nothing about insurance. A tortfeasor may be insured, underinsured, or uninsured. Much of injury practice consists of locating the tortfeasor’s coverage, and, when there is not enough of it, locating additional tortfeasors whose coverage can also respond.

What Kinds Of Tortfeasors Appear In North Carolina Injury Cases?

Most cases have one. Some have several, and the labels matter because different rules attach to each. A joint tortfeasor is one of two or more parties whose separate acts combined to cause a single injury. A third-party tortfeasor is the term workers’ compensation law uses for someone other than the employer whose negligence injured a worker on the job; the worker may collect compensation and also sue the third party, with the employer’s carrier holding a lien on the recovery under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 97-10.2. An intentional tortfeasor is treated differently from a negligent one in several respects, including contribution and punitive damages.

How Does North Carolina Handle Joint Tortfeasors?

Through the Uniform Contribution among Tort-Feasors Act. When two or more persons are jointly or severally liable for the same injury, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1B-1 gives them a right of contribution among themselves, whether or not judgment has been entered against all of them. Contribution runs only in favor of a tortfeasor who has paid more than a pro rata share of the common liability, and under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1B-2 the shares are equal; relative degrees of fault are not considered. A tortfeasor who intentionally caused the injury has no right of contribution, and one who settles cannot seek contribution from another whose liability the settlement did not extinguish.

North Carolina courts hold joint tortfeasors whose negligence combined to produce a single, indivisible injury jointly and severally liable, which means the injured person may collect the full judgment from any one of them. The tortfeasors then sort out their shares among themselves. Under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1B-3, a judgment against one does not discharge the others; only satisfaction of the judgment does. For the injured person the practical effect is a choice of pockets: the claim can be pursued against the tortfeasor with the deepest coverage, and the others’ insurers can be brought in by that tortfeasor through contribution.

• Joint and several liability: the plaintiff may collect the whole judgment from any tortfeasor liable for an indivisible injury.
• Contribution: a tortfeasor who pays more than its equal share may recover the excess from the others under § 1B-1.
• Equal shares: § 1B-2 divides the liability pro rata without regard to comparative fault.
• No contribution for intentional wrongs: § 1B-1(c).

What Happens When You Settle With One Tortfeasor But Not The Others?

N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1B-4 answers directly. A release or covenant not to sue given in good faith to one of several persons liable for the same injury does not discharge the others unless its terms say so, but it reduces the claim against the others by the amount stated in the release or the amount paid for it, whichever is greater. The settling tortfeasor is discharged from any contribution claim by the others. The rule lets an injured person take a fair settlement from one insurer without giving up the claim against the rest, as long as the release is drafted to say exactly that.

A worked example: Carla is injured in a three-car chain reaction on Interstate 40 near Wilmington. The first driver, who was texting, has a $50,000 policy; the second, who was following too closely, has $100,000. Carla’s damages are $180,000. She settles with the first driver’s insurer for its $50,000 limit under a release that expressly preserves her claim against the second driver. Under § 1B-4 her claim against the second driver is reduced to $130,000, within his coverage, and the first driver is protected from contribution. Had the release said she discharged “all persons” liable for the crash, the second driver’s insurer would argue it was released too.

How Does Contributory Negligence Change The Picture For A Tortfeasor?

In North Carolina the injured person can become a tortfeasor in the eyes of the law, and that ends the claim. Contributory negligence is the rule that a plaintiff whose own negligence was a proximate cause of the injury recovers nothing from any tortfeasor, and under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-139 the party asserting the defense must prove it. Adding tortfeasors does not soften the rule; two negligent defendants still pay nothing to a plaintiff who was also negligent. The exceptions are last clear chance, which the plaintiff must prove, and a tortfeasor’s gross negligence, which defeats the defense.

The rule also explains a common tactic. Each tortfeasor’s insurer has an incentive to blame the others and to blame the plaintiff, because any proof of the plaintiff’s negligence clears all of them at once. Identifying every tortfeasor early, locking down the evidence of each one’s fault, and building the record that the injured person did nothing to contribute is how a multi-defendant North Carolina claim is won.