A second, separate use for the 50% line
Beyond the familiar comparative negligence bar, South Carolina's 1988 Contribution Among Tortfeasors Act, S.C. Code § 15-38-15, uses a 50% fault threshold for a genuinely different purpose: deciding whether joint and several liability applies to a given defendant at all. A defendant whose own conduct is determined to be less than 50% of the total fault pays only that percentage of the damages — not a co-defendant's share as well.
What happens at 50% and above
Once a defendant's own fault reaches 50% or more of the total, this several-only protection falls away. That defendant can be held jointly and severally liable, meaning a plaintiff could potentially collect the entire judgment from that one defendant, regardless of what other defendants contributed to the total fault.
Real exceptions that override the threshold
The statute's protection for defendants under 50% fault isn't absolute. It carves out exceptions for a defendant found to have acted willfully, wantonly, or with gross negligence, and for certain cases involving alcoholic beverage or drug-related circumstances — situations where South Carolina law doesn't extend the same several-only protection regardless of that defendant's specific fault percentage.
Two different percentages, two different questions
It's worth keeping these separate: the plaintiff's own recovery is governed by the 51% comparative negligence bar — a question of whether the plaintiff recovers anything at all. The 50% liability threshold is an entirely different mechanism, addressing how a judgment against multiple defendants actually gets divided up once liability has already been established.
Who ultimately decides
If a case goes to trial, the jury or trier of fact determines both the plaintiff's fault percentage under the comparative negligence rule and each defendant's individual share under the liability statute. In the far more common scenario of a negotiated settlement, the parties and their insurers effectively work out these same questions between themselves. See our South Carolina comparative negligence calculator to see how sharply the plaintiff's own recovery changes on either side of the 51% line.