 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Gainsco Insurance Co. v. Amoco Production Co.8/19/2002
court, therefore, erred with respect to the general legal principles to be applied to Maddux's motion for summary judgment.
As noted previously, the courts of some jurisdictions have based their decisions on the exclusivity issue on the type of indemnity sought. In this case, the parties appear to concede that if Worker's Compensation is not a bar to indemnity based on an express contract, then it is not a bar to claims based on an implied indemnity or on common-law indemnity. As is the case with the issue of contribution, we have, therefore, no occasion in this opinion to decide whether or not causes of action had on implied indemnity or common- law indemnity would be precluded by the Worker's Compensation Act. That inquiry must await a case that squarely presents these last-mentioned issues.
[ ] In 1982, the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, applying Wyoming law, did answer this specific question. See Forward v. Cotton Petroleum Corp., 540 F.Supp. 122 (D.Colo. 1982). Relying on Maddux Well Service's broad statement that the worker's compensation statutes "'do not bar third-party claims for indemnity,'" and upon its own conclusion that Maddux Well Service, despite the above-quoted disclaimer, had actually "held that implied indemnity actions are not precluded by workmen's compensation," the court in Forward held that third-party implied indemnity actions are not barred by worker's compensation immunity. Forward, 540 F.Supp. at 124-25.
[ ] It is important in this discussion to keep in mind the distinction between liability in tort and liability for indemnity. In Cities Service Co., 705 P.2d at 325, we pointed out that an action for contribution from a joint tortfeasor is not like an indemnity action. The former is based on the injury to the employee while the latter is based on the independent relationship between the employer and the third party. Maddux Well Service, 586 P.2d at 1224. Worker's compensation immunity is part of the trade -off of rights and liabilities between employer and employee and it does not involve third parties who have not benefited from the arrangement. Id.; Cities Service Co., 705 P.2d at 324. That is why worker's compensation immunity does not protect employers from indemnity actions brought by those third parties.
[ ] The oral contract between Andrews and Kobbe did not contain an express indemnity provision. However, we have been shown nothing that convinces us to distinguish between express contractual indemnity and implied indemnity in this situation. In previous opinions, we have concluded that indemnity, in all its forms, survived repeal of joint and several liability and the contribution statutes, and adoption of comparative negligence. Diamond Surface, Inc. v. Cleveland, 963 P.2d 996, 1002 (Wyo. 1998); Schneider Nat., Inc., 843 P.2d at 565-80. In consonance with the comparative fault concept, we have also limited the indemnitee's recovery from the indemnitor to that portion of the damages caused by the indemnitor's breach of his separate duty to the indemnitee. Diamond Surface, Inc., 963 P.2d at 1002-03; Schneider Nat., Inc., 843 P.2d at 578. Indemnity does, after all, have its roots in the equitable principles of restitution and unjust enrichment. Schneider Nat., Inc., 843 P.2d at 578. The underlying public policy is simple fairness:
Indemnity actions are merely part of "a rich expositional refinement of the principle of fairness" in which "we each promise all others that we will be liable for the damage which our own negligence in the undertaking has caused." Missouri Pac. R. Co. [v. Whitehead & Kales Co.], 566 S.W.2d at 468-69, 469 n. 4 [(Mo. 1978)]. Schneider Nat., Inc., 843 P.2d at 577.
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Wyoming Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|