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D'Amario v. Ford Motor Co.11/21/2001
ortfeasor. See id. (citing Stellas v. Alamo Rent-A-Car, Inc., 702 So. 2d 232 (Fla. 1997)). The district court concluded that "it was error for the drunk driver, an intentional tortfeasor, to appear on the same verdict form as General Motors, the negligent tortfeasor in a products liability action." Id. at 441. Accordingly, the district court reversed the trial court's order and remanded the case to the circuit court for a new trial. See id.
ANALYSIS
Comparative Fault In Crashworthiness Cases
As noted above, although we recognized the crashworthiness doctrine in Evancho some time ago, the issue of whether principles of comparative fault apply in enhanced injury cases is one of first impression for this Court. It appears that the first case in Florida to have addressed this issue is Kidron, Inc. v. Carmona, 665 So. 2d 289 (Fla. 3d DCA 1995), wherein the Third District held that an automobile manufacturer in a crashworthiness case may apportion fault with the plaintiff based on the plaintiff's contributory negligence in causing the initial impact.
There, the plaintiff's husband was killed in an auto accident after his car crashed into the back of a stalled delivery truck manufactured by Kidron. The plaintiff sued Kidron in strict liability alleging that it assembled a truck without a rear underguard, which if installed would have prevented the decedent's car from being forced under the truck's bed during the collision. Kidron asserted a comparative fault defense based on the decedent's alleged negligence in failing to avoid hitting the stalled truck. The trial court refused to allow this defense and the plaintiff prevailed at trial. On appeal, the Third District held that the principles of comparative fault apply in a strict liability suit regardless of whether the injury at issue resulted from the primary or secondary collision. See id. at 292. The court reasoned:
This view is based on the belief . . . that fairness and good reason require that the fault of the defendant and of the plaintiff should be compared with each other with respect to all damages and injuries for which the conduct of each party is a cause in fact and a proximate cause. Id. (citing § 768.81, Fla. Stat. (1993)).
In so concluding, the court rejected the argument that a plaintiff's comparative fault should not be considered in the secondary collision context. See id. Without discussion, the court noted that the plaintiff's argument represented a minority view, and the court declined to follow it. See id.
The Majority View
Outside of Florida, courts have wrestled with the comparative fault issue and have adopted conflicting views. Under what has been characterized by Whitehead v. Toyota Motor Corp., 897 S.W.2d 684 (Tenn. 1995), as the "majority view," the fault of the plaintiff or a third party in causing the initial accident is recognized as a defense to a crashworthiness case against a product manufacturer. This line of cases reasons that the fault of the person causing the accident that created the circumstances in which the second accident occurred should be compared with the role of the automobile manufacturer's negligence in designing a defective product in assessing total responsibility for the claimant's injuries. See Montag v. Honda Motor Co., 75 F.3d 1414, 1419 (10th Cir. 1996) (interpreting Colorado law); Keltner v. Ford Motor Co., 748 F.2d 1265, 1267 (8th Cir. 1984) (applying Arkansas law); Hinkamp v. American Motors Corp., 735 F. Supp. 176, 178 (E.D.N.C. 1989), aff'd, 900 F.2d 252 (4th Cir. 1990); General Motors Corp. v. Farnsworth, 965 P.2d 1209, 1218 (Alaska 1998) (holding it was error not to instruct jury on plaintiff's comparat
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