Court Opinion

ID: 9613636
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:18:48.312797+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:46:51.041470
License: Public Domain

GOLDEN, Justice,
dissenting.
•I respectfully dissent. Relying on a Florida case, the majority holds that the unambiguous contract provision, “Owner to carry fire, tornado and other necessary in*180surance,” clearly and unequivocally expresses, beyond any peradventure of doubt, the intention of Teton Shadows, as owner, and Berger, as its plumbing subcontractor, that Berger is absolved from liability for Berger’s own negligence. I disagree.
For me, the facts of significance which frame this legal issue of the meaning of this unambiguous contract provision are that Berger is deemed the drafter of the contract provision and Berger’s negligence caused the fire. In Wyoming Johnson, Inc. v. Stag Industries, Inc., 662 P.2d 96, 99 (Wyo.1983), this court listed several principles of contract interpretation which I would apply here to resolve the legal issue presented. Courts look with disfavor on contracts exculpating a party from the consequences of his own acts. Id. Thus, we look with disfavor on Berger’s contract provision. We construe an agreement for indemnity strictly against the indemnitee, particularly if the indemnitee drafted the agreement. Id. Berger’s contract provision strikes me as being in the nature of an indemnity provision; therefore, I construe it strictly against Berger. Since Berger intended to throw the loss upon Teton Shadows for the consequences of Berger’s own fault, it was incumbent upon Berger to express that purpose beyond any peradventure of doubt. Id. In my judgment, Berger’s contract provision fails to express that purpose since it is silent about the matter. Berger’s contract provision fails the test identified in Wyoming Johnson: that provision does not specifically focus attention on the fact that by the provision Teton Shadows was assuming liability for Berger’s own negligence. Id. See also, Northwinds of Wyoming, Inc. v. Phillips Petroleum Company, 779 P.2d 753 (Wyo.1989); and Cities Service Co. v. Northern Production Co., Inc., 705 P.2d 321 (Wyo.1985).
I would affirm the trial court’s judgment in favor of Teton Shadows.