Opinion ID: 2437952
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Conspicuous Requirement

Text: By cross-point, Christie also maintains that the indemnity agreement is unenforceable because it is not sufficiently conspicuous. Although the court of appeals held that Christie waived this argument, the record shows that Christie made this argument in its response to Enserch's motion for summary judgment in the trial court and this argument was preserved in the court of appeals. Therefore, Christie did not waive it, and we will address this argument. Christie relies on K & S Oil Well Serv., Inc. v. Cabot Corp., 491 S.W.2d 733, 737-38 (Tex.Civ.App.-Corpus Christi 1973, writ ref'd n.r.e.), where the court required that an indemnity agreement be conspicuous in order to provide fair notice and to prevent an obvious injustice. The indemnity provision in K & S Oil was hidden, located on the reverse side of a sales order under the heading Terms and Conditions. It was surrounded by completely unrelated terms in a paragraph entitled Warranty. Accordingly, the court held, as a matter of law, that the indemnity provision was not conspicuous enough to give fair notice to the indemnitor. By contrast, the contract language in Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. v. Jefferson Constr. Co., 565 S.W.2d 916 (Tex. 1978), specifically referred to the hold harmless provision on the reverse side. On the front of each page in large red type was language that read: This purchase order is expressly made subject to, and your acceptance is strictly limited to, the terms and conditions stated herein, including the terms and conditions stated on the reverse side hereof. Id. at 920. We held that the indemnity provision in Goodyear was conspicuous enough to give fair notice of its existence. Id. In Rourke v. Garza, 511 S.W.2d 331 (Tex.Civ.App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 1974), aff'd, 530 S.W.2d 794 (Tex.1975), the court of appeals determined that indemnity provisions appearing on the back side of a delivery order were not so conspicuous as to give fair notice of the existence of an indemnity agreement. Id., 511 S.W.2d at 344. That court also refused to enforce indemnity language in Safway Scaffold Co. v. Safway Steel Prod., Inc., 570 S.W.2d 225 (Tex.Civ.App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 1978, writ ref'd n.r.e.). The Safway indemnity language appeared on the back of a rental form and was surrounded by unrelated terms in small and light type. Therefore, the court held that the indemnity provision was not conspicuous and was unenforceable. Id. at 228. The entire contract between Enserch and Christie consists of one page; the indemnity language is on the front side of the contract and is not hidden under a separate heading. The exculpatory language and the indemnity language, although contained in separate sentences, appear together in the same paragraph and the indemnity language is not surrounded by completely unrelated terms. Consequently, the indemnity language is sufficiently conspicuous to afford fair notice of its existence. The judgment of the court of appeals is affirmed in part and reversed in part. We affirm that portion of the court of appeals' judgment which remands the wrongful death claim. We reverse that portion of the court of appeals' judgment involving the indemnity claim and affirm the judgment of the trial court awarding Enserch indemnity against Christie. DOGGETT, J., not sitting.