“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).
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.]
