{"id":896629,"date":"2019-10-29T15:59:50","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T21:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=896629"},"modified":"2019-10-29T15:59:59","modified_gmt":"2019-10-29T21:59:59","slug":"georgia-supreme-court-addresses-anti-indemnity-statute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/georgia-supreme-court-addresses-anti-indemnity-statute\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia Supreme Court Addresses Anti-Indemnity Statute"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

David R. Cook, Jr. | Autry, Hall & Cook<\/a> | September 14, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In prior blog posts, we addressed Georgia\u2019s anti-indemnity statute. One of the posts addressed the statute in the context of an electric utility easement near an airport. That case made its way to the Supreme Court Georgia, which provided some additional clarity to the statute. Milliken & Co. v. Georgia Power Co., \u2014 Ga. \u2013, 829 S.E.2d 111 (2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a plane crashed and several passengers and crew died or were injured, their representatives sued several defendants, including a nearby plant owner, Milliken & Company (\u201cMilliken\u201d), based on claims that transmission lines on Milliken\u2019s property were too close to the runways, were too high, and encroached on the airport easements. Milliken cross claimed against Georgia Power Company (\u201cGPC\u201d). Milliken\u2019s claim was based on an easement it granted to GPC, which required GPC to indemnify it for any claims arising out of GPC\u2019s construction or maintenance of the transmission lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On appeal, the Supreme Court considered whether the clause was unenforceable under O.C.G.A. \u00a7 13-8-2(b). In general, \u201ca party may contract away liability to the other party for the consequences of his own negligence without contravening public policy, except when such agreement it prohibited by statute.\u201d Id. at 113 citing Lanier at McEver v. Planners & Eng\u2019rs Collaborative, 284 Ga. 204, 205 (2008). As one such statute, O.C.G.A. \u00a7 13-8-2(b) applies when an indemnification provision (i) \u201crelates in some way to a contract for construction, alteration, repair, or maintenance of certain property\u201d and (ii) \u201cpromises to indemnify a party for damages arising from that own party\u2019s sole negligence.\u201d Id. at 114 (internal punctuation omitted).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the easement required GPC to \u201cconstruct, erect, install, operate, maintain, inspect, reconstruct, repair, rebuild, renew and replace\u201d a substation on Milliken\u2019s property, the Supreme Court ruled that it was within the scope of provisions governed by the anti-indemnity provision. As to whether it violated the \u201csole negligence\u201d prong, the Supreme Court ruled that it did not. In contrast to the statutory prohibition, the easement did not require GPC (the indemnitor) to indemnify Milliken (the indemnitee) for damages resulting from Milliken\u2019s sole negligence. Instead, it required GPC to indemnify Milliken for GPC\u2019s negligence \u2013 which is not prohibited by the statute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GPC cited cases that invalidated indemnity provisions that required indemnification without regard to fault and were thus broad enough to include the indemnitee\u2019s negligence. Relying on these cases, GPC cited Milliken\u2019s pleadings which sought indemnification from GPC ostensibly without regard to fault. The Supreme Court rejected this argument because, even though Milliken\u2019s pleadings sought such broad indemnification, the underlying indemnity provision did not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David R. Cook, Jr. | Autry, Hall & Cook | September 14, 2019 In prior blog posts, we addressed Georgia\u2019s anti-indemnity statute. One of the posts addressed the statute in the context of an electric utility easement near an airport. That case made its way to the Supreme Court Georgia, which provided some additional clarity… Continue reading Georgia Supreme Court Addresses Anti-Indemnity Statute<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9914],"tags":[9895,385,420,22],"class_list":["post-896629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insurance-coverage","tag-advise-consult","tag-anti-indemnity","tag-georgia","tag-insurance","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nGeorgia Supreme Court Addresses Anti-Indemnity Statute - 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