Definition
Multiple wrongdoers.
Two or more persons jointly committing tort.
Etymology & Origin
From Old French 'joint' (joined together), past participle of 'joindre', itself from Latin 'jungere' (to join), combined with 'tortfeasor' — a hybrid of French 'tort' (wrong, from Latin 'tortus', twisted) and Anglo-French '-feisour' (doer, maker). A joint tortfeasor is thus a 'doer of wrong joined with another'.</p>
Full Legal Analysis
Joint Tortfeasors: Shared Wrong, Shared Liability
Where two or more persons combine to commit a single tortious wrong against another, the law treats them as joint tortfeasors. Their liability is not several and divided; it is joint and several. The injured party may sue them together or separately, may recover the entire loss from any one of them, and is not bound to apportion the blame among them at the moment of recovery. The wrong is one; the liability is whole as against each participant.
When Are Tortfeasors 'Joint'?
Tortfeasors are joint where they act in pursuance of a common design or where their separate acts combine to cause a single indivisible injury. Persons who pursue a common purpose — for instance, several assailants acting in concert, or a principal and agent carrying out a wrongful act together — are joint tortfeasors. Independent tortfeasors whose separate careless acts converge to produce one harm may also be treated as jointly liable, even absent concert, because their actions cannot be disentangled to assign distinct portions of the damage.
Contribution and Release
As between themselves, joint tortfeasors may seek contribution so that the ultimate burden is shared according to their relative fault. A settlement or release given by the injured party to one joint tortfeasor does not, at common law, discharge the others, though it may be taken into account to prevent double recovery. Indian courts, drawing on equitable principles, have held that where one joint tortfeasor has satisfied the judgment, that party may recover a proportionate contribution from the others — though such claims between wrongdoers are viewed with scrutiny to avoid rewarding iniquity.
“Those who join hands to do wrong are bound together in its consequences. The victim may look to any one of them for the full measure of redress; the law leaves the wrongdoers to settle their own accounts amongst themselves.”
