Nagunst v. Western Union Telegraph Co.

76 F.R.D. 631, 1977 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13260
CourtDistrict Court, D. Kansas
DecidedOctober 27, 1977
DocketNo. 76-144-C5
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 76 F.R.D. 631 (Nagunst v. Western Union Telegraph Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nagunst v. Western Union Telegraph Co., 76 F.R.D. 631, 1977 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13260 (D. Kan. 1977).

Opinion

ORDER

ROGERS, District Judge.

This is a personal injury case arising out of an automobile collision and comes before the Court on the motion of third party defendant Blanche Nagunst for summary judgment. The case presents new questions concerning the construction of the Kansas comparative negligence statute, K.S.A. 60-258a.

The facts necessary to a resolution of this motion are not in dispute. Plaintiff Mabel Nagunst is a citizen of Washington; Mary Moon, her guardian and conservator, is a citizen of Oregon and was appointed to her representative capacity by a Kansas court. Defendant Western Union is a New York corporation; defendant Zehe is its agent and resides in Kansas. Third party defendant Blanche Nagunst is also a resident of Kansas and her joinder in the action as a party defendant would destroy federal diversity jurisdiction.

On June 16, 1975, plaintiff Mabel Na-gunst was a passenger in a car driven by her sister-in-law, third party defendant Blanche Nagunst, on a county road in Nem-aha County, Kansas. This car collided with a car driven by defendant Zehe and leased to defendant Western Union. Western Union admits that Zehe was operating this vehicle within the scope of his employment for Western Union. A complaint seeking recovery for personal injuries was filed on behalf of Mabel Nagunst against defendants September 16, 1976. Defendants answered, denying liability, and defendant Western Union counterclaimed against plaintiff for damage to the Western Union automobile.

On October 19, 1976, and again on December 16,1976, defendants moved for join-der of Blanche Nagunst as a party defendant under the “forced joinder” provisions of K.S.A. 60-258a. This was granted by minute order December 21. Thereafter, defendants added a third party complaint against Blanche Nagunst claiming against [633]*633her for damage to the Western Union vehicle, the counterclaim to that effect against Mabel Nagunst having been dismissed by stipulated order December 21, 1977. On January 25,1977, Blanche Nagunst answered by general denial.

The motion now before us was filed July 13, 1977. Blanche Nagunst states, and it has not been controverted, that she entered into a covenant not to sue with her sister-in-law, the plaintiff, on October 10, 1976. She claims that by virtue of this document, no recovery may be taken against her, and hence that she may not be made a party defendant notwithstanding the “forced joinder” provisions of K.S.A. 60-258a(c). She further asserts that the third-party claim cannot be asserted against her in this action.

This motion once more brings into focus the inherent tension between subsections (c) and (d) of the Kansas comparative negligence statute, K.S.A. 60-258a. Subsection (c) purports to mandate joinder of any additional party “whose causal negligence is claimed to have contributed” to the injury at the request of any defendant. On the other hand, subsection (d) provides for pro rata allocation of the award only between parties against whom recovery is allowed. Movant claims this provision, and its like in subsection (a), precludes her joinder as a formal party. We agree.

However, we discern in the joinder provisions of subsection (c) a legislative intent that a plaintiff not be allowed to defeat proportionate liability by suing only a single defendant when more than one party arguably contributed to plaintiff’s injuries. As we stated in Greenwood v. McDonough Power Equipment, Inc., D.C., 437 F.Supp. 707 (Order filed September 27, 1977), “defendants . . . are now granted the substantive right to have their liability for the damages to which plaintiff is entitled measured by their share of the total negligence” attributable to all tortfeasors.

The Greenwood case is analogous to the one before us in that joinder of the other alleged tortfeasors would have destroyed federal diversity jurisdiction. The parties whose joinder was sought were not “indispensable” under F.R.Civ.Proc. 19, nor are they “indispensable” in the case before us. In Greenwood we sanctioned the “phantom party” concept suggested in the P.I.K. Committee’s Comment to P.I.K. 20.05 (1975 Supp.) and 3 Vernon’s Kansas Statutes Annotated § 60-258b, p. 88 (1977 Concannon Supp.). The named defendants’ substantive right can be preserved, and diversity jurisdiction not divested, by the simple expedient of refusing to join the non-diverse tort-feasors as formal parties yet determining their negligence and taking it into consideration in determining the named defendants’ liability. Were the destruction of diversity jurisdiction the only problem in this case, we would hold our reasoning in Greenwood dispositive.

However, we are presented with the unresolved problem of how to treat a party whose joinder is sought under K.S.A. 60-258a(c) and who can assert an affirmative defense as a bar to suit, such as the covenant not to sue pled by movant. Admittedly, this question does not face us as directly as it might were it not for the lack of complete diversity between movant and defendants, but it nevertheless begs resolution in the context of the motion presented.

“A covenant not to sue is a covenant by one who had a right of action at the time of making it against another person, by which he agrees not to sue to enforce such right of action.” 76 C.J.S. Release § 3. Defendants claim that in the case before us the execution of such a covenant should not preclude movant’s joinder as a defendant because movant’s remedy is a separate action for breach of the covenant, citing Pellett v. Sonotone Corporation, 26 Cal.2d 705, 160 P.2d 783, 787 (1945).

We are unable to agree that the effect of a covenant not to sue upon the joinder of additional tortfeasors in a case such as this should differ from the rule applicable when only the covenantee is sued. Although there is authority holding that a covenant not to sue does not extinguish the cause of action, “it is generally [634]*634held that . . . [it] may be pleaded in bar of a subsequent action.” 76 C.J.S. Release § 44. This rule prevents circuity of action, “for the damages for breach of the covenant would exactly equal the amount of [recovery].” Simpson, Law of Contracts § 210 (2d ed. 1965). A covenant not to sue one of many tortfeasors operates in Kansas “as a discharge pro tanto.” Symons v. Mueller Co., 526 F.2d 13, 19 (10th Cir. 1975) (citing Kansas eases).

To allow joinder of the covenantee under K.S.A. 60-258a(c) would be to nullify part of the consideration the covenantee receives for entering into such an agreement. The covenantee receives not only the assurance that no further claim can be made against him, but also freedom from the expense and inconvenience attendant to participation in a lawsuit.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
76 F.R.D. 631, 1977 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13260, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nagunst-v-western-union-telegraph-co-ksd-1977.