Court Opinion

ID: 9470973
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:22:10.489302+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:13.097140
License: Public Domain

TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
The majority concludes that this case is governed by E.C. Long, Inc. v. Brennan’s of *1505Atlanta, Inc., 148 Ga.App. 796, 252 S.E.2d 642 (1979). I disagree.
In Brennan’s, the owner of a mansion contracted with a general contractor to convert its mansion into a restaurant. The contract required the owner to procure fire insurance on the property protecting both parties. The owner fulfilled this obligation by obtaining a fire insurance policy that covered the parties as co-insureds. The parties intended that neither would have a claim against the other for any loss covered by this insurance policy, and they so provided in their contract: “The Owner and Contractor waive all rights against each other for damages caused by fire or other peril to the extent covered by [the fire] insurance [policy] provided [pursuant to this contract]
During the renovation, a sub-contractor, hired by the general contractor, broke a gas line, allowing gas to seep into the mansion. An explosion and fire followed, and the mansion was destroyed. The insurer paid the owner and the general contractor for the loss, issuing drafts payable to them jointly, and received a loan receipt from the owner giving the insurer the right to enforce any claims the owner might have against any third party for the loss. The insurer then brought this tort action in the owner’s name against the general contractor.
The contractor, in its answer, alleged that the suit was barred by provisions of the construction contract I have cited above. The Brennan’s court agreed. It held that the parties, by contract, “ ‘waived all rights against each other for damages caused by fire or other peril to the extent covered by insurance ....’” and that this foreclosed any claim the owner, or its insurer, might have against the contractor for any fire loss caused by the latter’s negligence.* 252 S.E.2d at 645-46. In reaching this holding the court relied on two other cases that involved similar waiver provisions. Id. 252 S.E.2d at 646-47. Luckenbach v. W.J. McCahan Sugar Ref. Co., 248 U.S. 139, 39 S.Ct. 53, 63 L.Ed. 170 (1918), and Wager v. Providence Insurance Co., 150 U.S. 99, 14 S.Ct. 55, 37 L.Ed. 1013 (1893).
In the case at hand, the construction contract contained no waiver provision. To the contrary, the contract provided that Georgia Sprinkler [the sub-contractor] would “at all times indemnify and save harmless [Briscoe, the contractor,] against any loss, cause of injury or damage to persons or property arising or resulting from the performance of [the contract].” The contract also provided that Georgia Sprinkler would “make good any loss or damage to any of [the] work ... from any cause whatsoever .... ” Briscoe, in one count of its complaint, now sues Georgia Sprinkler on these indemnity provisions. Georgia Sprinkler does not deny that these indemnity provisions literally embrace Briscoe’s claim. The only defense Georgia Sprinkler can raise to avoid liability, then, is that the parties did not contemplate that these provisions would apply to any Briscoe loss covered by an insurance policy purchased by Briscoe that named Georgia Sprinkler a co-insured.
Faced with such a defense, the district court’s first task is to determine whether the indemnity provisions, considered in the light of the other contract provisions, are ambiguous. If ambiguous, the court’s second task is to determine the parties’ true intent, a question of fact as to which there is no evidence (beyond the contract document itself) in the record before us. The district court has discharged neither of these tasks; accordingly, I would remand the case so that it can do so.

 The majority seizes upon one statement made by the Brennan’s court to decide this case: “The insurer having paid the other insured (the owner) cannot take subrogation and sue a co-insured even though the co-insured caused the damages.” 252 S.E.2d at 647. I believe that this broad generalization is dicta; the Brennan’s court decided the case on the existence of the waiver provision and nothing else was necessary to the decision. Therefore, I refuse to interpret Brennan’s as barring in all cases an insurer from suing a co-insured based upon the claims of another co-insured to which it has become subrogated especially in a case such as the one before us, where the defendant has agreed to indemnify the plaintiff. Furthermore, I note that no Georgia court after Brennan’s has interpreted the case in that manner.