Opinion ID: 1100512
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The provisions of this Section may be waived by the contractor.

Text: (Emphasis added). This statute seems to suggest that, with regard to claims brought under article 667, including claims related to pile driving activities, a contractor's responsibility is limited to merely acting as surety to the proprietor on whose property he is engaged in pile driving, in the event that the proprietor is responsible to his neighbor for damage. Not only is the contractor's responsibility limited to acting as a surety, the contractor only has to pay if the proprietor cannot pay. But, this same statute, in subsection (C), says that its provisions, which are protective of contractors, may be waived by a contractor. We find that Boh Brothers waived any limitation on its responsibility for the absolute liability claim through agreeing to the indemnity clause contained in the public contract, and National Union therefore may not benefit from this statute as Boh Brothers' insurer. Having rejected National Union's statutory arguments for finding the indemnity provision unenforceable, and, having concluded above that the indemnity provision does not unambiguously exclude the plaintiff's claim that the defendants were jointly liable under an absolute liability theory, we hold that National Union owes the City a defense against the absolute liability claim. Thus, we reverse the court of appeal's holdings, as a matter of law, that (1) Boh Brothers owed a duty to defend and indemnify the City and Dubroc against the absolute liability claim under the terms of the indemnity agreement; and (2) National Union owed a duty to defend Dubroc as an additional insured against the absolute liability claim. But, we affirm the court of appeal's determination that National Union owed a contractual duty to defend the City as an additional insured against the plaintiff's claim of joint absolute liability. We remand this matter to the trial court to determine the City's actual defense costs on the absolute liability claim alone. Because we have dismissed the plaintiff's absolute liability claim as a matter of law, we find that the City's indemnity claim against National Union is now moot.