PA Joint and Several Liability Bill Signed Into Law

On June 28, 2011, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett signed into law Senate Bill 1131, which significantly changed the law of joint and several liability in Pennsylvania. The new law provides that “where liability is attributed to more than one defendant, each defendant shall be liable for that proportion of the total dollar amount awarded as damages in the ratio of the amount of that defendant’s liability to the amount of liability attributed to all defendants and other persons to whom liability is apportioned.”

This is a change from prior Pennsylvania law, in which each defendant could be held responsible for the total verdict, not based upon the proportion of liability attributed to each defendant. The new law also requires the courts to “enter a separate and several judgment in favor of the plaintiff and against each defendant for the apportioned amount of that defendant’s liability.” Previously, a judgment could be entered against one defendant for the entire verdict, with that defendant’s only remedy to seek contribution from the joint tortfeasors. With this new legislation, separate judgments for defendants found less than 60-percent liable eliminates this practice.

Joint and several liability still exists in the following actions: intentional misrepresentation; intentional torts; where a defendant is held liable for 60 percent or more of the total liability apportioned to all parties; the release or threatened release of a hazardous substance under the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act; and civil actions in which a defendant violated section 497 of the Pennsylvania Liquor Code.

Additionally, the new law allows, upon “appropriate requests and proofs by any party,” the trier of fact to consider “for [the] purposes of apportioning liability only, the question of liability of any defendant or other person who has entered into a release with the plaintiff with respect to the action and who is not a party.” This allows defendants to identify and demonstrate the liability of any nonparties who settled with a plaintiff prior to suit, as well as any parties who settled prior to trial.  The new law does not, however, allow for apportionment of any responsibility to the plaintiff’s employer, to the extent that the employer is immune from liability pursuant to the exclusivity provision of the PA Workers Compensation Act.

The new law applies to cases that accrue on or after June 28, 2011.