contribution

Right of one who has discharged a common liability to recover of another also liable, the aliquot portion which he ought to pay or bear. Under principle of "contribution," a tort-feasor against whom a judgment is rendered is entitled to recover proportional shares of judgment from other joint tort-feasors whose negligence contributed to the injury and who were also liable to the plaintiff. Dawson v. Contractors Transport Corp., 151 U.S.App.D.C. 401, 467 F.2d 727, 729.

The share of a loss payable by an insurer when contracts with two or more insurers cover the same loss. The insurer's share of a loss under a coinsurance or similar provision. The sharing of a loss or payment among several. The act of any one or several of a number of co-debtors, co-sureties, etc., in reimbursing one of their number who has paid the whole debt or suffered the whole liability, each to the extent of his proportionate share. A number of states have adopted the Uniform Contribution Among Tortfeasors Act.

In the civil law, a partition by which the creditors of an insolvent debtor divide among themselves the proceeds of his property proportionably to the amount of their respective credits. Division which is made among the heirs of the succession of the debts with which the succession is charged, according to the proportion which each is bound to bear. In maritime law, where the property of one of several parties interested in a vessel and cargo has been voluntarily sacrificed for the common safety (as by throwing goods overboard to lighten the vessel), such loss must be made good by the contribution of the others, which is termed "general average".

See also general average contribution

- indemnity