“There is an important distinction between contribution, which distributes the loss among the tortfeasors by requiring each to pay his proportionate share, and indemnity, which shifts the entire loss from one tort feasor who has been compelled to pay it to the shoulders of another who should bear it instead.” (quotation marks and citation omitted)
How later courts described this case
- “There is an important distinction between contribution, which distributes the loss among the tortfeasors by requiring each to pay his proportionate share, and indemnity, which shifts the entire loss from one tort feasor who has been compelled to pay it to the shoulders of another who should bear it instead.” (quotation marks and citation omitted)
- allowing contribution for causes of action arising out of occurrences on or after March 1, 1978
- adopting the doctrine of contribution among joint tortfeasors
- adopting contribution among tortfeasors
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
Supplemental Opinion on Denial of Rehearing
The employer has filed a petition for rehearing urging, inter alia, that the holding in this case be given only prospective application. The Illinois Defense Counsel, as amicus curiae, pursuant to leave granted, has filed a motion “to invoke doctrine of prospective operation.” Although not in agreement with either the employer or amicus as to the manner in which the “prospective operation” should apply, the manufacturer has also filed suggestions urging “prospective operation.”
We have considered the arguments and have unanimously concluded that there are present here many of the problems and conditions which compelled the prospective application of the decisions in Molitor v. Kaneland Community Unit District No. 302, 18 Ill. 2d 11 , and Renslow v. Mennonite Hospital, 67 Ill. 2d 348 , and that this decision, too, should be prospective in operation. We hold, therefore, that the decisions in this cause, Stevens v. Silver Manufacturing Co. (1977), 70 Ill. 2d 41 , and Robinson v. International Harvester Co. (1977), 70 Ill. 2d 47 , will apply prospectively to causes of action arising out of occurrences on and after March 1, 1978.