Opinion ID: 2130164
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: statutory liability for scaffolds

Text: Contractor asserts that its agreement to indemnify Speedway is unenforceable to the extent that Contractor has agreed to indemnify Speedway for a breach of Speedway's duty under Neb.Rev.Stat. § 48-425 (Reissue 1988), which provides: All scaffolds, hoists, cranes, stays, ladders, supports or other mechanical contrivances used in the erection, repairing, alteration, removal or painting of any house, building, bridge, viaduct or other structure, shall be erected and constructed in a safe, suitable and proper manner. Scaffolding or staging, swung or suspended from an overhead support and more than twenty feet from the ground floor, shall have, where practicable, a safety rail properly bolted, secured and braced, rising at least thirty-four inches above the floor or main portion of such scaffolding or staging, and extending along the entire length of the outside and ends thereof and properly attached thereto, and such scaffolding and staging shall be so fastened as to prevent the same from swaying from the building or structure. As a result of § 48-425, one who erects, constructs, maintains, or supplies scaffolding must see that the scaffolding is erected and constructed in a safe, suitable, and proper manner. Hand v. Rorick Constr. Co., 190 Neb. 191, 206 N.W.2d 835 (1973). Breach of the duty imposed by § 48-425 constitutes negligence per se, not merely evidence of negligence. Johnson v. Weborg, 142 Neb. 516, 7 N.W.2d 65 (1942). See, also, Winterson v. Pantel Realty Co., 135 Neb. 472, 282 N.W. 393 (1938); Stevens v. Luther, 105 Neb. 184, 180 N.W. 87 (1920). Speedway, as a supplier of scaffolding, had a duty to supply scaffolding constructed in a safe, suitable and proper manner. However, notwithstanding the duty imposed by § 48-425, Speedway could obtain indemnification against a breach of its duty, that is, Speedway may, and did, contract for indemnification against its own negligence regarding a scaffold which it supplied. See, Omaha P.P. Dist. v. Natkin & Co., supra ; Peter Kiewit Sons Co. v. O'Keefe Elevator Co., Inc., supra . Under the circumstances of this case, nothing precludes contractual indemnification simply because Speedway's loss, for which it sought indemnification from Contractor, may have arisen out of the breach of a statutory duty rather than breach of a duty at common law. Thus, § 48-425 does not preclude indemnification against a breach of the statutory duty concerning scaffolding.