{"id":904969,"date":"2025-10-30T15:52:47","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T21:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=904969"},"modified":"2025-10-30T15:52:49","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T21:52:49","slug":"does-indemnify-equal-hold-harmless-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/does-indemnify-equal-hold-harmless-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Does \u201cIndemnify\u201d = \u201cHold Harmless\u201d? \u2013 Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>J. Christopher Selman and Zachary B. Stewart | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buildsmartbradley.com\/2025\/10\/does-indemnify-hold-harmless-part-2\/?utm_source=Bradley+Arant+Boult+Cummings+LLP+-+BuildSmart&amp;utm_campaign=3ae829878a-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_b504caf31b-3ae829878a-78863422\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">BuildSmart<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Earlier this May,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/hold-harmless-does-it-equal-indemnify\/\">we wrote<\/a>\u00a0about how the Alabama Supreme Court held that \u201chold harmless\u201d and \u201cindemnify\u201d may be considered synonyms, even if the terms appear separately in a contract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The court\u2019s decision in&nbsp;<em>Adams v. Atkinson<\/em>, No. SC-2024-0528, 2025 WL 1416851 (Ala. May 16, 2025),was an important precedent at the time, as it suggested that a \u201chold harmless\u201d clause could impose a duty of indemnity even if the term \u201cindemnity\u201d was not explicitly mentioned. The court emphasized the context-specific nature of its decision, suggesting that the parties to the trust agreement in<em>&nbsp;Adams&nbsp;<\/em>intended the hold harmless provision to operate as a reimbursement mechanism rather than merely a waiver of rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, on September 19, 2025, the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.buildsmartbradley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2025\/10\/Rehearing-Ex-Mero-Motu-Affirmed.-No-Opinion.-1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Alabama Supreme Court withdrew its opinion in\u00a0<em>Adams<\/em><\/a><em>.\u00a0<\/em>This withdrawal was based on the ground that the beneficiary to the trust agreement at issue \u201cwaived her right to challenge the unaddressed arguments of the defendants that could have supported the circuit court\u2019s judgment of dismissal\u201d because she \u201cdid not address in her initial brief on original submission all the defendants\u2019 arguments raised in their motion to dismiss.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is an important development because parties who want a \u201chold harmless\u201d provision to act only as a waiver of rights, rather than as a duty to indemnify, may now argue that&nbsp;<em>Adams&nbsp;<\/em>has no precedential value. On the other hand, the Alabama Supreme Court could revisit its original reasoning in&nbsp;<em>Adams&nbsp;<\/em>in a future case, and that reasoning might still influence how similar disputes are decided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Given these developments, parties should carefully consider the specific language used in indemnity and hold harmless clauses to ensure their intentions are clearly reflected.<\/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? \u2013 Part 2\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 Earlier this May,\u00a0we wrote\u00a0about how the Alabama Supreme Court held that \u201chold harmless\u201d and \u201cindemnify\u201d may be considered synonyms, even if the terms appear separately in a contract. The court\u2019s decision in&nbsp;Adams v. Atkinson, No. SC-2024-0528, 2025 WL 1416851 (Ala. May 16, 2025),was an important precedent&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/does-indemnify-equal-hold-harmless-part-2\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Does \u201cIndemnify\u201d = \u201cHold Harmless\u201d? \u2013 Part 2<\/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":[9895,224,478,10828],"class_list":["post-904969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-contracts","tag-advise-consult","tag-construction-contract","tag-duty-to-indemnify","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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