164
Opinion of the Court
citing federal decisions from 1883, 1893, 1894, 1895, 1902, 1904, 1906, 1910, and 1913); Edmonds, 443 U. S., at 260 ( joint and several liability remains the rule in admiralty).
Norfolk nonetheless maintains that "[a]pportionment was the common-law rule at the time of FELA's enactment" in 1908. Brief for Petitioner 32. This Court's repeated statements concerning joint and several liability refute that contention. Many of Norfolk's historical authorities, moreover, address the procedural question whether two defendants may be sued in one action, rather than the substantive one whether each negligent defendant is liable in full for a plaintiff's injury. These "separate problems," Dean Prosser cautioned, "require separate consideration, and have very little in common." Joint Torts and Several Liability, 25 Calif. L. Rev. 413 (1937). While "[t]he common law rules as to [procedural] joinder were extremely strict," id., at 414, "the common law [also] developed . . . a distinct and altogether unrelated principle: a defendant might be liable for the entire loss sustained by the plaintiff, even though his negligence concurred or combined with that of another to produce the result" and even where "no [procedural] joinder would have been possible," id., at 418.
Looking beyond historical practice, Norfolk contends that the modern trend is to apportion damages between multiple tortfeasors. Brief for Petitioner 40-43. The state of affairs when the FELA was enacted, however, is the more important inquiry. See, e. g., Monessen Southwestern R. Co. v. Morgan, 486 U. S. 330, 336-339 (1988) (prejudgment interest is not available under the FELA because it was unavailable at common law when the statute was enacted). At any rate, many States retain full joint and several liability, see Restatement (Third) of Torts, Apportionment of Liability § 17, Reporters' Note, table, pp. 151-152 (1999), even more retain it in certain circumstances, id., tables, at 153-159, and most of the recent changes away from the traditional rule have come through legislative enactments rather than judicial de-
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