For now, despite the Lithuanian Presidency's efforts, one provision continues to bring this opposition to the surface, namely the measure on
joint and several liability in the subcontracting chain (Article 12), whereby a direct subcontractor can be held liable for non-payment of the salary of a posted worker.
Legal minds agree that the Supreme Court decision sounds like the death knell for the prevailing reasoning in favor of imposing
joint and several liability in Superfund cases where sites involve "toxic soups," which preclude any equitable, reasonable way to perform fair-share apportionment of responsibility among contributors, be they site owners or managers, disposers, and/or generators of the hazardous waste.
The only issue pending in a stand-alone case is whether the requesting spouse is entitled to relief from
joint and several liability.
Under Florida's current law,
joint and several liability applies only to economic damages for defendants who are more than 10 percent at fault.
Without
joint and several liability innocent plaintiffs--those guilty of no contributory negligence--will be left with only a partial recovery against negligent tortfeasors whose wrongful acts caused all the harm.
Under
joint and several liability, even if a company was deemed only 1% at fault for a plaintiff's injuries, that company could be held fully responsible for massive awards that may have had very little to do with their own wrongdoing.
Additionally, some states have enacted legislation that addresses the issue of
joint and several liability (the legal doctrine that makes each party responsible for an injury liable for all the damages awarded if other parties responsible cannot pay), as compared to basing liability directly on the percentage of fault that can be attributed.
1) Less than or equal to 10 percent, there is no
joint and several liability at all;
In addition,
joint and several liability extends not only to the tax due on a joint return but also to deficiencies, penalties or additions to tax subsequently determined against the joint filers.
The statute eliminates
joint and several liability, limits punitive damages to three times economic damages, caps noneconomic damages at $500,000 and restricts liability for medical malpractice and faulty products.
of a husband and wife file a joint tax return, both parties assume
joint and several liability.
Joint and several liability means if you only contributed 1 percent of the waste, you could be held liable for 100 percent of the cleanup costs.
