Court Opinion

ID: 9763015
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:35:17.399235+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:38.845732
License: Public Domain

Conley Byrd, Justice, concurring. I concur with the reversal and virtually arrive at the same result, but it appears to me that so long as the risk of damage or injury must arise, “in connection with (the subcontractor’s) work,” any injury resulting from the general contractor’s sole active negligence is excluded from the indemnity agreement. Since it is possible that a subcontractor’s employee can be injured from a risk not arising in connection with his employer’s work and not from the sole active negligence of the general contractor, then it appears that the majority is making the indemnity broader than the parties bargained for. Suppose that the general contractor was building a 24 story skyscraper, that the subcontractor was installing electrical wiring on the 12th floor and that a boiler manufacturer in testing the pressure of a boiler in the basement caused the boiler to explode in such manner as to cause the building to fall. In this case the injury to the subcontractor’s employees would not be caused by the general contractor’s sole active negligence but the language of the majority opinion could lead one to think that the subcontractor’s indemnity agreement here involved would protect the general contractor. On the other hand, if the indemnity agreement is construed as protecting only those injuries of employees arising in connection with the subcontractor’s work, the general contractor would be without indemnity. It seems to me that the latter interpretation is the more preferable construction because it would give the subcontractor some control, by safety rules or inspections, over those matters under his control. Admittedly in arriving at my construction of the indemnity agreement, I am reading the word “or” as “and” in the phrase, “employed on or in connection with his work.” This is in accord with the authorities. They point out that the popular use of “or” and “and” is so loose and frequently inaccurate that their strict meaning is more readily departed from than that of other words and that one may be read in place of the other in deference to the meaning of the context. See Williams v. State, 99 Ark. 149 (1911). Furthermore, this construction comports with the first sentence of the clause which provides: “Party of the second part shall be responsible for his own work and every part thereof, and all of the work of every description used in connection therewith.” Other phrases of the same clause refers to damages . . . “resulting from any action or operation under this sub-contract or in connection with his work.” For the reasons stated, I only concur with the result of the majority opinion.