American Motorcycle Association v. Superior Court – Case Brief
American Motorcycle Association v. Superior Court, 20 Cal.3d 578, 578 P.2d 899 (Cal. 1978).
Case Summary:
Facts: Glen Gregos (P), a teenager, had his spine crushed in an accident in a cross country motorcycle race for novices. Gregos sued American Motorcycle (D) and Viking Motorcycle Club (D1) for negligence. American Motorcycle denied Gregos’s allegations and asserted affirmative defenses, alleging that P’s own negligence was the proximate cause of his injuries. D sought leave to file a cross complaint against P’s parents for negligence in failing to supervise P and that D’s negligence if any was passive while P’s parents’ negligence was active. D also sought declaratory relief against P’s parents in that P failed to join his parents in his action and asks for the allocable negligence of P’s parents so that damages awarded against D would be reduced by the percentage of damages allocable to P’s parents’ negligence. The trial court dismissed the proposed cross complaint and certified the question for a higher review.
Issue: Does common law equitable indemnity permit a concurrent tortfeasor to obtain partial indemnity on a comparative fault basis from other concurrent tortfeasors?
Holding and Rule: Yes. The court held that once it had determined that a concurrent tortfeasor enjoys a common law right to obtain partial indemnification from other concurrent tortfeasors on a comparative fault basis, it must determine if D may properly assert that right by cross complaint against P’s parents who were not named as codefendants in P’s amended complaint. Governing provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure (Section 428.10) authorized D to seek indemnification from a previously unnamed party through such a cross complaint. The interaction of the partial indemnity doctrine with existing cross complaint procedures works no undue prejudice to the rights of plaintiffs.
Disposition: Reversed and remanded.