{"id":904430,"date":"2025-06-05T09:24:27","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T15:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=904430"},"modified":"2025-06-05T09:24:30","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T15:24:30","slug":"hold-harmless-does-it-equal-indemnify","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/hold-harmless-does-it-equal-indemnify\/","title":{"rendered":"Does \u201cIndemnify\u201d = \u201cHold Harmless\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>J. Christopher Selman and Zachary B. Stewart | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buildsmartbradley.com\/2025\/05\/does-indemnify-hold-harmless\/?utm_source=Bradley+Arant+Boult+Cummings+LLP+-+BuildSmart&amp;utm_campaign=e389d449e8-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_b504caf31b-e389d449e8-78863422\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">BuildSmart<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>\u201cContractor shall indemnify and hold harmless\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Does this sound familiar? Nearly every construction contract contains an indemnification provision with some variation of these terms. And if you have ever negotiated a construction contract, you know that indemnification provisions often feature in those discussions. But are the words \u201cindemnify\u201d and \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/indemnity-provision-hold-harmless\/\">hold harmless<\/a>\u201d an example of lawyers inserting a meaningless list of synonyms to ensure that all bases are covered? Or do \u201cindemnify\u201d and \u201chold harmless\u201d mean different things? According to the Alabama Supreme Court in\u00a0<em>Adams v. Atkinson<\/em>, No. SC-2024-0528, 2025 WL 1416851 (Ala. May 16, 2025), \u201cindemnify\u201d and \u201chold harmless\u201d may be synonyms depending on the context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As noted in one of our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.buildsmartbradley.com\/2024\/10\/alabama-supreme-courts-recent-ruling-on-indemnity-clauses-could-impact-construction-contracts-key-drafting-considerations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">prior blog posts<\/a>, \u201ccontractual indemnity is the right of one party (the indemnitee) to claim reimbursement for a loss from another party (the indemnitor).\u201d But does \u201chold harmless\u201d also give one party a right to indemnification when it appears by itself? This past week, the Alabama Supreme Court held that the answer might be \u201cyes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In&nbsp;<em>Adams<\/em>, a beneficiary of a family trust sued other parties for reimbursement of attorneys\u2019 fees under the terms of a prior settlement agreement. The beneficiary faced a demand for payment of attorneys\u2019 fees from a trustee and sought reimbursement from the defendants under a hold harmless provision. The hold harmless provision did not include the word \u201cindemnify\u201d but required the defendants to \u201chold [the beneficiary] harmless against any demand\u2026 by any corporate trustee\u2026 for attorneys\u2019 fees.\u201d The defendants argued that \u201chold harmless\u201d was a&nbsp;<em>defensive<\/em>&nbsp;term in that they agreed only to waive any claim against the beneficiary for attorneys\u2019 fees. The beneficiary, however, argued that the hold harmless provision necessarily granted an&nbsp;<em>offensive<\/em>&nbsp;right to reimbursement, i.e., indemnification, for the attorneys\u2019 fees because it contemplated claims against the beneficiary only.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Alabama Supreme Court held that \u201chold harmless\u201d and \u201cindemnify\u201d may be synonyms even when they \u201cappear separately and perform the same function.\u201d To be clear, the court emphasized its holding was \u201cnarrow.\u201d In the context of the specific hold harmless provision at issue, holding the beneficiary harmless against demands by corporate trustees only made sense if \u201chold harmless\u201d meant \u201cindemnify.\u201d The court concluded by (1) confirming that \u201cindemnify\u201d and \u201chold harmless\u201d are synonyms when they appear as a doublet (i.e., beside each other in the same provision) and (2) reasoning that \u201chold harmless\u201d can mean \u201cindemnify\u201d when it (a) appears separately and (b) performs the \u201csame function\u201d as an indemnification provision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In ruling in favor of the beneficiary, the court determined the context of the specific agreement in&nbsp;<em>Adams<\/em>&nbsp;indicated that the parties intended the hold harmless provision to operate as a reimbursement mechanism rather than a mere waiver of rights. The court found the defendants\u2019 argument illogical as they would have no claim for attorneys\u2019 fees to be waived in an action by a trustee against the beneficiary in which none of the defendants were named.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, what does&nbsp;<em>Adams<\/em>&nbsp;mean for your construction contracts?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It means that you should be careful when using the words \u201chold harmless\u201d by itself because a court or arbitrator may conclude that it means something different than you intended. Regardless of whether you want \u201chold harmless\u201d language to operate as a waiver or a right to indemnification, later interpretations of that provision may be fact-dependent and may vary depending on the specific language used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When one of your cases is in need of a construction expert, estimates, insurance appraisal or umpire services in defect or insurance disputes &#8211; please call Advise &amp; Consult, Inc. at 888.684.8305, or email <a href=\"mailto:experts@adviseandconsult.net\">experts@adviseandconsult.net<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Republished with permission. The article, \u201cDoes \u201cIndemnify\u201d = \u201cHold Harmless\u201d?\u201d was originally published on BuildSmart by Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP. Copyright 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>J. Christopher Selman and Zachary B. Stewart | BuildSmart \u201cContractor shall indemnify and hold harmless\u2026\u201d Does this sound familiar? Nearly every construction contract contains an indemnification provision with some variation of these terms. And if you have ever negotiated a construction contract, you know that indemnification provisions often feature in those discussions. But are the&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/hold-harmless-does-it-equal-indemnify\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Does \u201cIndemnify\u201d = \u201cHold Harmless\u201d?<\/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":[9],"tags":[9895,224,10828],"class_list":["post-904430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-contracts","tag-advise-consult","tag-construction-contract","tag-hold-harmless","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Does \u201cIndemnify\u201d = \u201cHold Harmless\u201d? 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