The plaintiff was a mailhandler for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). He was seriously injured while unloading containers of mail from a FedEx tractor-trailer truck.
The USPS is immune from ordinary civil liability under federal law, but was liable for the federal equivalent of workers' compensation. The plaintiff sued FedEx, and the jury found the plaintiff's damages to be $1,445,700. The jury determined that the plaintiff was six percent at fault, FedEx was four percent at fault, and the USPS was 90 percent at fault. Thereafter, FedEx moved for entry of judgment in its favor, arguing that pursuant to RSA 507:7-d, (the comparative negligence statute) since the plaintiff's percentage of fault (six percent) was greater than FedEx's percentage of fault (four percent), the plaintiff was not entitled to recover any damages against FedEx. See RSA 507:7-d, :7-e, I(b). The trial court agreed, and the plaintiff appealed.
The Supreme Court reviewed its recent cases in the area of apportioning fault among multiple defendants, and ruled that the fault of the immune USPS should have been aggregated with the fault of FedEx, totaling 94 percent of the fault, and thus allowing the plaintiff to recover some damages. Recovery, however, was limited to FedEx's four percent of fault, $57,828, plus statutory interest and costs.
Although no municipality was a party to this case, it illustrates the difficult problems faced when a person is injured during any activity in which the municipality is a participant. This might be on a public works project, but it could also involve use of a facility, or a special event, or an ongoing recreational program. When multiple parties are involved, there should be clear written agreements regarding duties and responsibilities, a review of insurance coverage to assure that the correct amounts and types of insurance are available to compensate for losses, and that careful risk management review is undertaken to prevent tragedies such as this unfortunate case illustrates.