Klemme v. Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian

Opinion

KAUFMAN, J.

This appeal raises the question, said to be a recurring problem in the trial courts, whether in a negligence action involving multiple defendants, the trial court may, at the plaintiff’s request and over the defendants’ objections, direct the jury to apportion comparative fault among the defendants by special verdict. We conclude that it may not and that the trial court in the case at bench erred in requiring the jury to apportion fault among the defendants and an “other” nonparty. The more difficult question is whether the error was prejudicial requiring reversal of the…