DIVIDED-DAMAGES RULE

divided-damages rule.Maritime law. The obsolete principle that when two parties are jointly

liable to a third party for a tort, each party is liable for only half the  damages. • The courts  now

apply  a  comparative-negligence standard.  [Cases:  Collision    143.  C.J.S. Collision  §§  242,  245,

259, 261–262.]

“For over a hundred years admiralty law embraced the rule of ‘divided damages’ in collision

cases  ….  In  1975,  in  United  States  v.  Reliable  Transfer  Co.,  421  U.S.  397,  95  S.Ct.  1708,  44

L.Ed.2d  251  (1975),  the  Supreme  Court  jettisoned  that  inequitable  and  illogical  rule  in  favor  of

proportionate  allocation  of  fault  among  joint-tortfeasors  in  collision  cases.  Each  vessel  now  is

liable to the other offending vessel in contribution for that part of the total damages proportionate

to  its  fault,  and  is  liable  for  its  per  capita  (virile)  share  only  when  the  respective  faults  of  the

vessels are equal, or when proportionate fault can not be ascertained.” Frank L. Maraist, Admiralty

in a Nutshell 165 (2d ed. 1988). [Blacks Law 8th]