LEONARD L. FARBER COMPANY, INC., A NEW YORK CORPORATION, APPELLANT,
v.
HILDA JAKSCH, A WIDOW, AND VANDERMARK, INC., A FLORIDA CORPORATION, APPELLEES

Fla. 4th DCA | 1976-07-09
No. 75-838
WALDEN, J., and BERANEK, JOHN R., Associate Judge, concur.
335 So. 2d 847 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (1976) Caution
Cited by 18 cases

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Synopsis

This case involves a dispute over contractual indemnity between a shopping mall owner (Farber) and a tenant (Vandermark) after they jointly settled a personal injury lawsuit. The court determined that the lease agreement's indemnity clause, despite an addendum, clearly intended for the tenant to indemnify the landlord for their shared liability, even when the landlord's own negligence contributed to the injury.


Holding

Yes, the lease agreement's indemnity clause is sufficiently clear and unequivocal to obligate the lessee to indemnify the lessor for their joint liability, even when the lessor's own negligence was a contributing factor. The court also found that Vandermark's failure to obtain the required insurance for Farber constituted a breach of contract for which Farber suffered damages.


Headnotes

[1] An indemnity agreement must state in clear and unequivocal language an intention to indemnify the indemnitee for consequences arising solely from the indemnitee's own neg…

[2] A lease provision stating that the lessee shall indemnify the lessor for liability "occasioned wholly or in part by any act or omission of Lessee" is sufficiently clear a…

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Key Quotes

“Lessee shall indemnify LESSOR and save it harmless from suits, actions damages, liability and expense in connection with loss of life, bodily or personal injury or property damage arising from or out of any occurrence in, upon or at or from the Demised Premises or any part thereof, or occasioned wholly or in part by any act or omission of Lessee; its agents, contractors, employees, servants, invitees, licensees or concessionaries, including the sidewalks and common areas and facilities within the Shopping Center development ; * * *”

This quote is from the lease agreement's indemnity clause, forming the basis of Farber's claim.

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Facts & Procedural History

Hilda Jaksch sued both Farber (mall owner) and Vandermark (tenant) for injuries sustained from slipping on a sausage in a common walkway. Both parties…

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Opinion of the Court
ALDERMAN, Judge.

ALDERMAN, Judge.

Leonard L. Farber Company, Inc., the cross-claimant below, timely appeals a final judgment denying its cross-claim for indemnity against the cross-defendant, Van-dermark, Inc. The original plaintiff, Hilda Jaksch, is not involved in this appeal.

Farber, as owner and lessor of a shopping mall, and Vandermark, as lessee, were jointly sued by Jaksch, who sustained injury when she slipped on a piece of sausage lying on a common walkway within the mall. The complaint alleges that Vander-mark was negligent in the procedure used in dispensing free samples of the sausage and that Farber was negligent in failing to reasonably maintain the public area of the mall. The slip and fall occurred a few feet from the entrance to Vandermark’s store.

Farber’s cross-claim for indemnity is based upon the terms of the written lease agreement between the parties. The cross-claim also alleges damages as a result of Vandermark’s failure to provide liability insurance for the benefit of Farber, as provided under the lease.

Prior to the trial, the negligence action was settled with each defendant paying $10,000 to Jaksch, without prejudice to their respective rights against each other. The pertinent provisions of the lease agreement provide:

“37. INDEMNITY: (a) Lessee shall indemnify LESSOR and save it harmless from suits, actions damages, liability and expense in connection with loss of life, bodily or personal injury or property damage arising from or out of any occurrence in, upon or at or from the Demised Premises or any part thereof, or occasioned wholly or in part by any act or omission of Lessee; its agents, contractors, employees, servants, invitees, licensees or concessionaries, including the sidewalks and common areas and facilities within the Shopping Center development ; * * * ”

“Addendum to Paragraph 37 — Anything contained in Paragraph 37 hereof to the contrary notwithstanding, Lessor shall not be relieved of any liability resulting solely from the negligence of Lessor or of its agents or employees.”

“38. INSURANCE: Lessee shall maintain at its own cost and expense * * * (b) PUBLIC LIABILITY INSURANCE on an occurrence basis with minimum limits of liability in an amount of Five Hundred Thousand ($500,000) Dollars for bodily injury * *

“40. INSURED’S WAIVER, NOTICE: Any insurance procured by Lessee as herein required shall be issued in the name of Lessor and Lessee by a company licensed to do business in the state where the Shopping Center is located * * * »

It should be understood that the issues on this appeal are limited to contractual indemnity. Farber is not asserting or seeking a right of contribution against a joint tortfeasor. No claim is made under the active-passive tortfeasor doctrine. Farber is seeking indemnity for its loss under the “hold harmless” provisions of the Lease Agreement.

The present case is distinguishable from University Plaza Shopping Center, Inc. v. Stewart, 272 So. 2d 507 (Fla.1973). There tht Supreme Court held that an agreement to indemnify landlord “against any and all claims” did not disclose an intention to indemnify for consequences arising solely from the negligence of the landlord. The court stated that the “. basic objective in construing the indemnity provision is to give effect to the intent of the parties involved”, and found that the use of the general terms, “indemnify . against any and all claims”, did not disclose an intention to indemnify for consequences arising solely from the negligence of the indemnitee. The court adopted the rationale of previous Florida cases which hold that an indemnity agreement which indemnifies against the indemnitee’s own negligence must state this in “clear and unequivocal” language. Gulf Oil Corp. v. Atlantic Coastline R.R. Co., 196 So. 2d 456 (Fla.App.2nd 1967), cert. denied, 201 So. 2d 893 (Fla.1967); Florida Power & Light Co. v. Elmore, 189 So. 2d 522 (Fla. App.3rd 1966), cert. denied, 200 So. 2d 810 (Fla.1967); Nat Harrison Associates, Inc. v. Fla. Power & Light Co., 162 So. 2d 298 (Fla.App.3rd 1964).

The indemnity agreement in this case clearly did not intend to indemnify Farber for consequences arising solely from its own negligence. This is apparent from the Addendum to Paragraph 37, which specifically states that “. . . Lessor shall not be relieved of any liability resulting solely from the negligence of Lessor or of its agents or employees.”

In the present case, both parties concede that their joint liability to the original plaintiff was occasioned in part by the negligence of the Lessee, Vandermark, and in part by the negligence of the Lessor, Farber. The question then is whether the language, “. . . occasioned wholly or in part by any act or omission of Lessee, .” is sufficiently “clear and unequivocal” to make the Lessee liable to indemnify Lessor for their joint liability, where the joint liability resulted from the negligence of both the Lessor and the Lessee. We believe that it is. To avoid the obvious meaning of Paragraph 37, Vander-mark argues that the “in part” language means any act or omission of Lessee with a third person, other than the Lessor. To reach this conclusion the court would have to read a meaning into the contract contrary to its express language. In our opinion the language of the agreement is clear and unequivocal and discloses the intention of the parties to have the Lessee hold the Lessor harmless.

Farber’s second point is based upon the provisions of Paragraphs 38 and 40, requiring Vandermark to provide liability insurance for the benefit of Farber. Van-dermark admits that it did not obtain liability insurance coverage in Farber’s name. However, Vandermark argues that it had no duty under the lease to indemnify Far-ber for Farber’s own negligence, therefore Farber sustained no damages as a result of Vandermark’s technical breach of the lease. This argument must fail in view of the court’s finding that Vandermark, under the terms of the lease, did have a duty to indemnify.

Reversed and remanded with instructions that judgment be entered against Vander-mark and in favor of Farber. WALDEN, J., and BERANEK, JOHN R., Associate Judge, concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • …ERG, Justice. This cause is before us on petition and cross-petition for writ of certiorari to review a decision of the District Court of Appeal, Third District, reported at 358 So. 2d 84, which allegedly misapplied Leonard L. Farber Co. v. Jaksch, 335 So. 2d 847 (Fla. 4th DCA 1976). The issue is whether respondent and cross-petitioner Spring Lock is entitled to indemnity from petitioner and cross-respondent Charles Poe Masonry, Inc. under either a common law or contractual theory. We have jurisdiction pursu…
  • Marino v. Weiner, 415 So. 2d 149 (Fla. 4th DCA 1982)
    …ests the lessee’s unequivocal intent to indemnify the lessors in cases where the lessors and lessee are found to be jointly negligent. Charles Poe Masonry, Inc. v. Spring Lock Scaffolding Rental Equipment Co., supra; Leonard L. Farber Co. v. Jaksch, 335 So. 2d 847 (Fla. 4th DCA 1976). Thus, if the jury were to find that the water which caused Weiner to slip and fall was occasioned solely by the negligence of the lessors, they would not be entitled to contractual indemnification. On the other hand, if the jury…
  • Mitchell Maint. Sys. v. State of Fla. Dep't OF Transp., 442 So. 2d 276 (Fla. 4th DCA 1983)
    …national Corp., 384 So. 2d 947 (Fla. 4th DCA 1980); Middleton v. Lomaskin, 266 So. 2d 678 (Fla. 3d DCA 1972); John W. Eshelman & Sons, Inc. v. Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, 431 So. 2d 345 (Fla. 2d DCA 1983). In Leonard L. Farber Co. v. Jaksch, Inc., 335 So. 2d 847 (Fla. 4th DCA 1976), this court upheld a provision which relieved a lessor of all responsibility for losses occasioned wholly or in part by any act or omission of the lessee but which explicitly excluded the lessee from liability that was solely due…

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