Also known as: action in concert · acting in concert · acted in concert · concerted action · joint tortfeasors
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Joint liability imposed on multiple persons who have planned, assisted, or encouraged a tortious act. The rule treats each participant as responsible for the entire resulting harm when their coordinated conduct produces an indivisible injury.
Arcadia Retail's bookkeeper entrusted with signing checks collaborated with her brother to forge the company's indorsement on a customer payment. The bank paid the instrument in good faith. Because the brother acted in concert with the employee who held responsibility for the instrument, the indorsement binds the company and the loss falls on Arcadia Retail.
Amelia Amari and Albert Allen organized weekly meetings to plan a merchant boycott and assigned participants specific roles in picketing and publicity. When violence occurred at one event, the court held both leaders jointly liable for the resulting damages because their coordinated planning and encouragement constituted actions in concert.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Aether Technologies and Astra Aerospace jointly developed testing protocols and shared marketing materials for a pharmaceutical product without adequate warnings. When a user suffered injury, the companies' tacit understanding and mutual reliance on each other's work established actions in concert, exposing both to full liability.
Alpine Mining and another firm stored chemicals near a rail line. A derailment released toxins that forced evacuation of an entire neighborhood. Because the companies' storage decisions combined to create a single indivisible harm, each was held jointly liable under the rule for actions in concert.
Antonio Alvarado's employer negligently exposed him to workplace hazards that caused permanent injury. His wife Alexis Archer sued separately for loss of consortium. The court recognized her independent claim because it arose from a duty owed directly to her rather than through actions in concert with her husband.
Two aluminum producers agreed to divide geographic territories and fix output levels. When the arrangement suppressed competition, the government proved the firms' coordinated conduct constituted actions in concert that violated antitrust law and justified structural relief.
Joint and several liability arises when multiple parties plan, assist, or encourage the same tortious conduct and their actions produce a single indivisible harm. Each participant becomes responsible for the entire damages even if individual contributions cannot be precisely measured.
Yes. Under UCC § 3-405(b), a fraudulent indorsement made by an employee or by a person acting in concert with the employee is effective as the employer's own indorsement when the bank acts in good faith. The bank therefore obtains the rights of a holder and the loss allocation rules apply.
Concerted action requires a shared plan or mutual encouragement, whereas concurrent negligence involves independent acts that happen to combine into one harm. Only concerted action automatically imposes full joint liability without regard to relative fault percentages.
Yes. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65(d)(2) extends an injunction to non-parties who act in active concert with the enjoined party after receiving actual notice. Coordinated enforcement efforts under the direction of an employee satisfy the concert requirement.
…stand. It is argued by defendants that they are not joint tort feasors, and thus jointly and severally liable, as they were not acting in concert, and that there is not sufficient evidence to show which defendant was guilty of the negligence which caused the injuries—the shooting by Tice or that by Simonson. Tice argues that there is…