(Court of Appeals of New York) The court considered the market share doctrine for apportioning responsibility between tortfeasors: ‘We hold that the liability of DES producers is several only, and should not be inflated when all the participants in the market are not before the court in a particular case. We understand that, as a practical matter, this will prevent some plaintiffs from recovering 100% of their damages. However, we eschewed exculpation to prevent the fortuitous avoidance of liability, and thus, equitably, we decline to unleash the same forces to increase a defendant’s liability beyond its fair share of responsibility.’
Judges:
Wachtler CJ
Citations:
(1989) 539 NE 2d 1069
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Barker v Corus (UK) Plc HL 3-May-2006
The claimants sought damages after contracting meselothemia working for the defendants. The defendants argued that the claimants had possibly contracted the disease at any one or more different places. The Fairchild case set up an exception to the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
International, Damages
Updated: 28 July 2022; Ref: scu.241495