Court Opinion

ID: 9606480
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:50:10.47125+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:34.778805
License: Public Domain

McMurray, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
Provision 7 of the lease agreement provides: “TENANT shall keep its inventory and property insured against damages from all perils in such amounts as TENANT shall deem necessary and adequate. To the extent not covered by said insurance policy, TENANT does hereby release and indemnify LANDLORD from any and all damages that may occur to TENANT’S inventory and property on the leased premises due solely to external causes (other than insects, rodents, vermin, or damages from failure to maintain the temperature or humidity levels specified herein), and provided that LANDLORD’S failure to comply with the provisions of this contract did not contribute to such loss or damage. LANDLORD will provide and maintain general liability insurance and a warehouse legal liability insurance policy in form and substance acceptable to TENANT with limits acceptable to TENANT and naming TENANT as an additional insured thereunder. Certificates of such insurance shall be delivered to TENANT upon request.”
In view of the provision requiring plaintiff to insure its inventory and property against damages “from all perils,” I find the case of Tuxedo Plumbing &c. Co. v. Lie-Nielsen, 245 Ga. 27 (262 SE2d 794), to be controlling. Thus, I would affirm the grant of defendant’s motion for summary judgment.
The majority takes the position that Tuxedo Plumbing &c. Co. v. Lie-Nielsen, 245 Ga. 27, supra, is inapplicable because of a substantial difference in the language of the lease agreement. In this regard, the majority points to additional language in provision 7: (a) the language whereby plaintiff releases defendant from liability for damage to plaintiff’s property to the extent not covered by insurance provided the damage is due to external causes only and defendant’s failure to comply with the provisions of the lease agreement did not contribute to the damage and (b) the language requiring defendant to purchase insurance for the protection of plaintiff. I am not persuaded.
(a) Generally speaking, the release language does not conflict with the exculpatory insurance language in provision 7 — it complements it. It further demonstrates the parties’ intention to look to the insurance for protection against loss. Insofar as the release language can be said to conflict with the exculpatory insurance requirement (by *334reserving a right of action for damage to the extent plaintiffs property was not covered by insurance under certain circumstances), the exculpatory insurance language must control. In effect, the release language in provision 7 is no different from the hold harmless language set forth in provision 4.4 of the Lie-Nielsen contract.1 Just as the hold harmless language gave way to the exculpatory insurance provision in Tuxedo Plumbing &c. Co. v. Lie-Nielsen, 245 Ga. 27, supra, so too must the release language give way to the exculpatory insurance language in the case sub judice.
Decided December 3, 1987
Rehearing denied December 15, 1987
Gary W. Hatch, Donald A. Loft, W. G. Elliott, for appellant.
J. Converse Bright, Wade H. Coleman, for appellee.
(b) With regard to the requirement that defendant purchase insurance for the protection of plaintiff, it must be observed that defendant was not required to purchase property insurance for the protection of plaintiff’s property and inventory. Rather, the insurance to be purchased by defendant was of other kinds (general liability insurance and warehouse liability insurance) and plaintiff was to be a named insured thereunder. It cannot be said, therefore, that this additional language contravenes the exculpatory intent of the lease agreement.
In my opinion, the evidence demonstrated without conflict a mutually exculpatory agreement. Tuxedo Plumbing &c. Co. v. Lie-Nielsen, 245 Ga. 27, supra. Accord Island Villa Developers, Inc. v. Bonner Roofing &c. Co., 175 Ga. App. 713 (334 SE2d 41); Pettus v. APC, Inc., 162 Ga. App. 804 (293 SE2d 65). Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.

 This contractual language can be found in the opinion of the Court of Appeals, Lie-Nielsen v. Tuxedo Plumbing &c. Co., 149 Ga. App. 502 (254 SE2d 729), which was reversed by the Supreme Court in Tuxedo Plumbing &c. Co. v. Lie-Nielsen, 245 Ga. 27, supra. In its opinion, the Court of Appeals determined that the hold harmless language controls and that the insurance provision had no effect upon liability. Lie-Nielsen, 149 Ga. App. 502, 503, supra. Reversing, the Supreme Court held that the insurance provision prevailed and that the parties could look only to the insurance to cover a loss.