Joint and several liability

“ It no more says that the contractor shall reimburse the Government for his share of joint negligence than that shall be a liability insurer for the Government's sole negligence.
The Court nonetheless manages to discover that the clause amounts to a contribution agreement, relying for its conclusion upon cases involving, not the simple responsibility clause before us, but express indemnification agreements with 'hold harmless' clauses. [6] This result is said to be desirable because it ensures a fair distribution of loss between those jointly responsible for the damage. ”

“ If a firm be composed of two persons, associated for the conduct of a particular branch of business, it can hardly be maintained that the joint contract of the two partners, made in their individual names, respecting a matter that has no connection with the firm business, creates a liability of the firm as such. ”

“ It merely imposes a liability upon the lessee while operating it; and if this liability extends, as is claimed, to obligations of the lessor antecedent to the lease, such as that sought to be enforced in the present proceeding, there is nothing in the statute to exclude the idea that it is a joint liability, enforceable against both. ”

“ A statute of Illinois provides that in actions on contracts, express or implied, against two or more defendants as partners, joint obligors, or payors, proof of their joint liability or partnership shall not be required to entitle the plaintiff to judgment, unless such proof shall be rendered necessary by a plea in abatement, or a plea in bar, denying the partnership or joint liability, verified by affidavit. ”

“ By the settled law of this court, common carriers of goods or possengers cannot, by any contract with their customers, wholly exempt themselves from liability for damages caused by the negligence of themselves or their servants. ”

“ It has been urged on the part of the defence, that, though the contract does not attempt to exempt, and could not have exempted, the express company from liability for loss occasioned by the neglect of itself or its servants, yet, when it is sought to charge the company with neglect, it must be such as it is responsible for upon the general principles of law; and that, upon those principles, no one is responsible for damage occasioned by neglect, unless it be the neglect of himself, his servants, or agents. ”

“ These assignments are reducible to three propositions, to wit: (1) the capacity of plaintiffs to sue, (2) the application of the safety-appliance law, and (3) the measure of damages. Their discussion requires a consideration of the employers' liability law, as the amended complaint is based on that law. ”

“ The liability of the officers and stockholders of the company to the state is statutory only, and there can be no recovery unless the facts stated in the declaration are such as to bring the defendants within the operation of the liability clause in one or the other of the statutes. ”

“ This problem of liability to third persons is resolved by determining whose enterprise the particular venture was. The fact that the parties say it is the enterprise of one, not the other, is not decisive. ”

“ So far, therefore, as the beneficiaries and the agents are different persons, the liability of bodies corporate is an instance of vicarious responsibility, and it is to be justified on the same principles as are applicable to the vicarious liability of a principal for the unauthorised acts of his agent—principles which will be considered by us at a later stage of our enquiry. ”

“ When a man commits a tort, he incurs, by force of the law, a liability to damages, measured by certain rules. When a man makes a contract, he incurs, by force of the law, a liability to damages, unless a certain promised event comes to pass. ”

“ ASSIGNMENT OF DUTIES.—The duties under a contract are not assignable under any circumstances. That is, one who owes money or is bound to any performance can not by any act of his own or by any act in agreement with any other person except his creditor, divest himself of liability and substitute the liability of another. ”

“ The second contention rests upon the assumption that the court below affirmed a supposed action of the trial court in erroneously instructing the jury that the effect of the employers' liability act was to abolish the doctrine of assumption of risk. ”

“ In this court the condition of the assignee cannot be better than it would be at law in any mode he could take to recover what was due upon the assignment.' The principle is distinctly recognized that the measure of liability upon the instrument secured is the measure of the liability chargeable upon the security. The condition of the assignee cannot be better in law than it is in equity. ”

“ Instead of making cases arising under the Federal Employers' Liability Act an exceptional class, Congress in 1916 explicitly withdrew Federal Employers' Liability cases from the Court's obligatory jurisdiction. ”

“ The principle of limited liability having been once adopted by the legislature, justice required not only Register of members. that such limitation of liability should be brought home by every possible means to persons dealing with the company, but also that such persons should know as far as possible what was the limited capital which was the sole fund available to satisfy their claims—what amount had been called up, what remained uncalled, who were the persons to pay, and in what amounts. ”

“ Does a law which, for accidents in certain carefully defined and especially dangerous employments, transfers the liability from the individual to the organization, and which carefully preserves the right of the employer to submit any questions which arise under the law to the courts for adjudication, deprive the employer of his property without due process of law? The Court of Appeals of New York State affirms that it does. ”

“ The liability is based, not upon any act or omission of the employer, but upon the existence of the relationship which the employee bears to the employment because of and in the course of which he has been injured. And this is not to impose liability upon one person for an injury sustained by another with which the former has no connection ”

“ Is is denied that a municipal corporation (as distinguished from a corporation organized for private gain) is liable for the injury to an individual arising from negligence in the construction of a work authorized by it. Some cases hold that the adoption of a plan of such a work is a judicial act; and, if injury arises from the mere execution of that plan, no liability exists. ”

“ Wherever, by either the common law or the statute law of a State, a right of action has become fixed and a legal liability incurred, that liability may be enforced and the right of action pursued in any court which has jurisdiction of such matters and can obtain jurisdiction of the parties. ”

“ It shall be unlawful for any person, company or corporation to require of its servants or employes, as a condition of their employment or otherwise, any contract or agreement whereby such person, company or corporation shall be released or discharged from liability or responsibility on account of personal injuries received by such servants or employes while in the service of such person, company or corporation, by reason of the negligence of such person, company or corporation, or the agents or employes thereof, and such contracts shall be absolutely null and void. ”

“ Under the statute, which declares 'any one of the associates, or his legal representatives, may also be sued for the obligations of all,' it has been uniformly held that a partnership creditor may sue one of the members of a firm for a debt contracted in the partnership name, whether by account or otherwise, and declare upon the demand as his individual liability;' citing Code 1886, § 2605 ”

“ Undoubtedly any suit to establish the civil liability imposed by the Act must ultimately seek recovery of the consideration paid less income received or damages if the claimant no longer owns the security. ”

“ The one thing which that amendment was intended to prevent was the use of this msurance or relief for which the employee has himself paid in whole or in part, as a bar to the right which the statute has given him to recover damages from the corporation.' It is urged, however, that the amendatory act prohibits the making of a contract for settlement 'by acts done after the liability had become fixed.' The acceptance of benefits is, of course, an act done after the injury, but the legal consequences sought to be attached to that act are derived from the provision in the contract of membership. ”

“ It is quite true that 'the extent of the liability to be incurred must be expressed by the surety, or necessarily comprised in the terms used in the obligation or contract;' that is, 'the obligation is not to be extended to any other subject, to any other person, or to any other period of time than is expressed or necessarily included in it.' 'In this sense only,' continues Mr. ”

“ In Great Britain, it has become quite general for employers to seek release from personal liability, or from costs for damages or partial indemnity, by either subscribing to the several employés' liability insurance companies or by wide-spread attempts to evade their responsibilities under the law by inducing the workmen to contract themselves out of the act. ”

“ It would far exceed the limits to be observed in this opinion to enter upon an elaborate or critical review of the authorities upon those several points. Nor shall we attempt to lay down any general rule applicable to all cases involving the liability of the common employer to one employ e for the negligence of a co-employ e in the same service. ”

“ The general partner has the full liability, referred to above; the limited partner’s liability never exceeds the amount of his investment. In a limited partnership one or more, but not all, members may limit their liability. ”

“ To be sure, the Court does not go quite so far as to hold that this obscure clause operates as a complete liability insurance policy. But the Court does hold that the clause requires the contractor to indemnify the Government 'to the full extent that its negligence, if any contributed to the injuries to the employee.' The magnitude of the burden the Court imposes is well illustrated by the circumstances of this case. ”

“ There is a clear difference between the revival of a liability which is unenforceable only because a statute has barred the remedy regardless of the will of the parties, and the extension of a liability beyond the limit expressly agreed upon by the parties. ”

“ I prefer, of course, a double liability, but I find that under our court system a man does not get nearly as much under the double liability as he could expect to receive under a single liability law, and that if we would insist upon a double liability in this State we would have to cut down the other provisions of the bill to secure it. ”

“ It is clear that, whatever may be the effect of custom and course of dealing upon the question of legal liability, proof of such custom and course of dealing would have been admissible, not in order to change the law, but for the purpose of charging the plaintiffs, as holders of the bills of lading, with knowledge of the relations between the parties. ”

“ Whether a corporation created for the purpose of dealing in lands, and to which the powers to purchase, to subdivide, and to sell, and to make any contract essential to the transaction of its business, are expressly granted, possesses, as fairly incidental, the power to incur liability in respect of securing better facilities for transit to and from the lots or lands which it is its business to acquire and dispose of? ”

“ An attachment does not create a lien, but a mere contingent liability, which can only become fixed after judgment or decree, in the principal suit, and, in case, also, that the debt due from the garnishee has not been previously extinguished otherwise than by his voluntary act. ”

“ Many cases may be found which hold, that where false answers are made to inquiries which do not relate to the risk, the policy is not necessarily avoided unless they influenced the mind of the company, and that whether they are material is for the determination of the jury. But we know of no respectable authority which so holds, where it is expressly covenanted as a condition of liability that the statements and declarations made in the application are true, and when the truth of such statements forms the basis of the contract. ”

“ State Workmen's Compensation Laws almost invariably contain provisions for liability either to independent contractors or to their employees, sometimes absolute and sometimes conditioned upon default by the immediate employer ”

“ Every issue of ultra vires or proof of officers' authority in a contract action involves inquiry into internal affairs, but that inquiry is not one which must be relegated to home jurisdiction. The contracts of a corporation may make its liabilities turn on such events as realization of net earnings which submit its internal affairs to scrutiny in order to determine liability and which any court with jurisdiction may adjudicate. ”

“ Petitioner adds that in doubtful cases it may be advantageous to the employee to compromise, that to force litigation may disrupt employer-employee relationships, and that numerous compromise settlements have been made for less than full liability. [8]
We do not find it necessary to determine whether the liability for unpaid wages and liquidated damages that Section 16 (b) creates is unitary or divisible. [9] Whether the liability is single or dual, we think the remedy of liquidated damages cannot be bargained away by bona fide settlements of disputes over coverage. ”

“ A second phase of this whole subject which has been noted in the development of the great industrialism of the day has been the inevitable animosity between capital and labor through the ceaseless litigation growing out of these cases. The individual or the corporation that employs on a large scale has taken insurance in liability companies, and, in too many instances, cases which admitted of little difference of opinion have been carried into the courts. ”