Rule 1.982.On motion in other cases

Rule 1.982 lists categories of claims that can go to judgment on motion rather than through a full new action: sureties or cosureties recovering money they paid as such, clients against attorneys, plaintiffs in execution proceeding by motion against sheriffs or other officers for money or property those officers collected, and any other case a statute specially authorizes.

Contribution based on comparative fault gets its own subsection and its own limits. A judgment for that kind of contribution may be obtained by motion only where the fault findings supporting it were already made by the court or jury in the same action, and only by or against persons who were parties to that action when those findings were made — a party who was not part of the case when the findings were made cannot ride them. The motion can be filed even after final judgment in the action, and a pending appeal does not strip the trial court of jurisdiction to decide it. The resulting judgment can take the form of a declaratory judgment conditioned on a party's future satisfaction of one or more of the judgments already entered in the action, which addresses the practical problem that no one may have paid anything yet when the contribution question comes up.