pure several liability

Pure several liability is a legal doctrine that a defendant is only liable, or responsible, for the damages/injury they caused. Pure several liability, also called proportionate liability, is prominent in tort law and used to limit a defendant’s liability to actual fault. For example, in a car accident involving three cars. Car A is stopped at a red light when Car B rear-ends Car A pushing it into the intersection. Car C then runs a red light through the intersection and hits Car A again, totaling Car A. The court finds Car B 40% responsible and Car C 60% responsible for the accident. The owner of Car A can only recover 40% of the car’s value and any other damages from Car B, and 60% from Car C.

Pure several liability is different from other types of several liability because a plaintiff can only recover the percentage an individual defendant is liable for, regardless of what other defendants are liable for, or what they can afford to pay. The deep pocket rule, in which a defendant can be liable for more damages than they are directly responsible for because they can bear the financial loss, does not apply in pure several liability. See: Huck v. Wyeth, Inc., 850 NW 2d 353 (2014). Therefore, pure several liability is fairer for defendants because they only pay for what they’re responsible for. However, this practice is less favorable for plaintiffs because they cannot recover from other joint defendants if one is unable to pay their share of the harm.

[Last reviewed in April of 2026 by the Wex Definitions Team]

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