An unpublished decision from the North Carolina Court of Appeals yesterday demonstrates how important it is to not only read, but also to fully understand, legally binding documents before signing them.
Category Archives: Indemnity Claims
It’s Not Enough to Read Before Signing; Always Strive to Understand Before Signing
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Filed under Indemnity Claims, Lien Law, NC case law, No Damages for Delay Clauses
Courts Generally Will Enforce North Carolina’s Anti-Indemnity Statute, But How Far?
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Back in March, I wrote about the role of North Carolina’s anti-indemnity statute in the construction industry. The statute, codified at N.C. Gen Stat. § 22B-1, appears below (you can click the image for a larger version):
As my previous blog post indicated, the statute prevents “one party from shifting the entire risk of its own negligence to another.” A recent case from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina demonstrates how courts utilize the so-called “blue pencil” doctrine to accomplish that goal.
Don’t Blame Me When It’s All Your Fault: the Role of Anti-Indemnity Statutes in Construction
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Nobody likes being blamed for somebody else’s mistake. Worse still is shouldering the financial burden on account of another’s wrongdoing.
Yet that’s precisely the position many contractors and subs find themselves in as the result of the presence of an indemnity clauses in their construction contracts.
To my way of thinking, it is fundamentally unfair to shift the entire risk of one’s own negligence to another party. As my Twitter feed has revealed over the last week or so, the state legislatures in Missouri and Minnesota are in the process of wrestling with that unfairness:
The good news for North Carolina contractors is that the Tar Heel State has a statute on the books preventing one party from shifting the entire risk of its own negligence to another.
Filed under Indemnity Claims, State law, policy & news
N.C. Construction Law, Policy & News 