Can fault be split between an employer and its employee under Georgia apportionment?

· 3 min read

Whether fault gets divided between an employer and an employee depends on what kind of claim is alleged against the employer. When the employer’s liability rests purely on being responsible for the employee’s acts, the two are generally treated as a single unit of fault. When the employer is accused of its own independent wrongdoing, the apportionment picture can change.

Vicarious liability versus direct negligence

Two distinct theories often appear against employers in injury cases:

  • Vicarious liability, where an employer is answerable for an employee’s negligence committed within the scope of employment, even though the employer itself did nothing wrong.
  • Direct negligence, where the employer is blamed for its own conduct, such as negligent hiring, training, supervision, or entrustment.

These theories matter because they are treated differently when a jury allocates fault under O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33. The label on the claim drives whether the employer and employee occupy one slot or two.

How fault is allocated in each situation

When the only basis for the employer’s liability is the employee’s conduct, courts have generally treated the employer and employee as standing in the employee’s shoes for apportionment, so the fault attributable to the employee is what governs the employer’s exposure. The employer does not get a separate fault percentage simply for being vicariously responsible, because its liability is derivative of the employee’s act.

Where the employer is independently negligent in its own right, that separate wrongdoing can be weighed on its own. The plaintiff may pursue both the employee’s negligence and the employer’s direct fault, and the jury can consider each. In Quynn v. Hulsey (2020), the Georgia Supreme Court held that O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33 abrogated the older rule that barred direct-negligence claims such as negligent hiring or entrustment once an employer admitted vicarious liability, so those independent claims may now proceed alongside an admitted respondeat-superior theory.

Why this distinction is worth attention

For an injured person, the difference affects strategy and recovery. A pure vicarious-liability case ties the employer’s exposure to the employee’s share of fault. A direct-negligence case opens the door to holding the employer accountable for its own failures, which may matter when the employee’s conduct alone does not capture everything that went wrong. Because the treatment of these claims has changed since Quynn, how the law applies to any specific claim depends on its facts and the theories pleaded.

The bottom line

Under Georgia apportionment, an employer answerable only for an employee’s acts is generally treated together with the employee rather than given a separate fault share, while an employer accused of its own direct negligence can be weighed independently. The split therefore turns on the theory pleaded, and this area continues to develop through Georgia court decisions.

This article is for general educational and informational purposes only and is not legal advice. It does not create an attorney-client relationship, and Georgia law may change. For advice about a specific situation, consult a licensed Georgia personal injury attorney.

Related:

  1. How does Georgia split fault between the property owner and the criminal who attacked me? Georgia handles this split through its apportionment system, which lets a jury assign a share of responsibility to each party involved, including the criminal who committed the attack. That allocation......
  2. Can an employer face punitive damages for what its employee did in Georgia? An employer in Georgia can be exposed to punitive damages arising from an employee's conduct, but the path matters. The exposure can flow either through the employer's responsibility for an......
  3. Is an employer liable when its employee crashed while driving for work? An employer can be held responsible for a crash its employee caused while working, under the long-standing rule that holds a business accountable for the negligence of workers acting in......
  4. How is fault split in a North Georgia ice-storm chain-reaction crash? When ice triggers a multi-vehicle pileup in the North Georgia mountains, fault is not assigned to the weather; it is divided among the drivers based on how each one handled......
  5. How is the full value of a life split between economic and intangible parts in Georgia? Georgia divides the value of a lost life into two categories that are proven in very different ways: an economic part backed by financial evidence, and an intangible part left......
  6. How is a settlement split between the wrongful death and survival claims in Georgia? When a single settlement resolves both the wrongful death claim and the estate's survival claim, the money must be divided between them because each claim compensates different losses and pays......
  7. Is a Georgia hospital liable for the negligence of its employee nurses? A Georgia hospital can generally be held responsible for the negligence of nurses it employs. This rests on the long-standing principle that an employer answers for the wrongful acts of......
  8. How does a carrier admitting the driver was its employee affect my claim? When a trucking company concedes that the driver was its employee acting within the scope of employment, that admission can reshape the case considerably. It locks in the company's responsibility......
  9. Do all the children of the decedent split the wrongful death proceeds equally in Georgia? Among themselves, the decedent's children generally share equally, but their portion depends on whether a surviving spouse is also in the picture and on whether any child died before the......
  10. How did the 2024-2025 Georgia changes affect apportionment to non-parties? Georgia's apportionment rules drew renewed attention in the 2025 legislative session, when the General Assembly passed a broad tort-reform package. The core mechanism for assigning fault to people who were......
  11. Does apportionment apply when there is only one defendant in my Georgia case? Yes. In a single-defendant Georgia case, the apportionment statute still applies, and a jury can place fault on the plaintiff and on properly identified non-parties even though only one defendant......
  12. How is blame decided in a crash where I-75 and I-85 split in downtown Atlanta? Where the combined Downtown Connector divides back into I-75 and I-85, drivers must commit to the correct side under time pressure, and last-second moves cause collisions. Blame in these wrecks......
  13. Can the car ahead of me be blamed for slamming on its brakes in Georgia? Sometimes, but not easily. Georgia generally expects a following driver to anticipate that the vehicle ahead may stop, so a sudden stop alone rarely shifts blame. The lead driver becomes......
  14. Can a store owner be liable for an unsafe pedestrian layout in its Georgia lot? A store owner in Georgia can be held responsible when the design of its parking area creates an unreasonable danger to people walking through it. The owner is not an......
  15. Does Georgia let me hold Lyft vicariously liable for its driver’s negligence? Vicarious liability against Lyft is possible in theory but difficult in most cases, because it depends on the legal relationship between the company and the driver rather than on the......

Leave a Reply