Indemnity

A crane operator was tragically killed when a beam being hoisted by the crane crashed onto the top of the cab. The beam fell because the sling selected for the load was inadequate. The sling had been selected by workers for the steel erection company… Read More

A Connecticut court, applying plain language in a subcontract, has held that the sub must defend the general contractor in an injured worker lawsuit, even if the sub’s obligation to indemnify the GC is not yet established. The worker was employed b… Read More

Readers of this blog know that the terms and conditions in equipment rental agreements favor the rental company. Those agreements typically have one-sided indemnity clauses, on the basis that the rental company expects the renting contractor to carry… Read More

A majority of states have enacted anti-indemnity laws in various forms, protecting subcontractors (in most states with such laws) and prime contractors (in a lesser number of states) from overbroad indemnity clauses. But some clauses target sectors o… Read More

A subcontractor was obligated to provide experienced workers, and the GC had the right to tell the sub to remove anyone without the requisite experience. The sub’s workforce included a woman without any prior experience with the rebar bending machi… Read More

File this one under “Oops.” The unsigned contract meant that the contractual liability exclusion in the subcontractor’s insurance policy would control, since there was no obligation “assumed in a contract or agreement . . . [where the claim]… Read More

It’s a problem. Per the court: “Just as ‘Ten’ is not ‘Twenty,’ a ‘corporation’ cannot mean ‘a limited partnership.'” So a surety who obtained an indemnity agreement for claims arising from bonds… Read More

The “American rule” in litigation is that each party must pay its own legal fees, absent a contract or statutory right to recover the same from another party. But the nature of an indemnity is one where legal fees incurred by the indemnitee shoul… Read More