Thomas

The principal issue presented in this case is whether an intentional tortfeasor is entitled to a reduction or apportionment of noneconomic damages under Proposition 51 (otherwise known as the Fair Responsibility Act of 1986 and codified at Civil Code sections 1431 to 1431.5). We answer this question in the negative.

William Thomas and Woodrow C. Taylor (the plaintiffs) sued Duggins Construction Company, Inc. (Duggins), and certain of its employees for injuries they sustained when the scissor lift it sold to their employer collapsed on a construction jobsite. A jury found in the plaintiffs’ favor on their claims for breach of implied warranty, negligence and intentional misrepresentation; it awarded Taylor $1.2 million and Thomas $696,000 in damages and found that Duggins and the plaintiffs’ employer were each 40 percent responsible for the injuries, while two of Duggins’s employees each bore 10 percent responsibility. The jury also found that one of the Duggins’s employees made intentional misrepresentations about the scissor lift to plaintiffs’ employer in connection with the sale. Thereafter, the court rejected Duggins’s arguments that its liability for the plaintiffs’…