Smith v. Jenkins

OP ALA, Justice.

The dispositive issue on certiorari is whether, in comparative-negligence litigation, where both parties prevail on their respective claim and compulsory counterclaim arising from the same tortious event, controlling statutory and fundamental law requires that each party litigant be allowed an attorney’s fee for the successful prosecution of its own claim and that the amount awarded be reduced by the percentage of negligence found by the fact trier? We answer in the affirmative.

I

THE ANATOMY OF LITIGATION

In May of 1989 the automobiles driven by appellant Leroy R. Smith [Smith]…