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Berry v. Orleans Parish School Board6/21/2002
We granted a writ of certiorari in this case to consider whether an indemnity clause between the Lighthouse of the Blind and the Orleans Parish School Board requires the Lighthouse to indemnify the school board for the school board's alleged negligence. For the following reasons, we affirm the court of appeal and remand for further proceedings.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
The Orleans Parish School Board ("OPSB") entered into a contract with the Lighthouse of the Blind in New Orleans, Inc. ("Lighthouse") whereby the Lighthouse provided mobility training services to Orleans Parish Public School students. Pursuant to that contract, the Lighthouse agreed to indemnify the OPSB in the following clause:
To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Contractor [Lighthouse] shall indemnify, hold harmless and defend the School Board, its employees and agents from and against all claims, demands, suits, damages, judgments of sums of money, losses and expenses, including but not limited to attorney's fees and costs ("Claims") arising out of the performance of any of the services to be performed pursuant to the terms of this Agreement, provided that any such Claims (i) are attributable to bodily injury , sickness disease or death, or injury to or destruction of tangible property including the loss of use resulting therefrom; and (ii) is caused in whole or in part by any act or omission of the Contractor, any Subcontractor, anyone directly or indirectly employed by any of them or anyone for whose acts any of them may be liable, regardless of whether or not it is caused in part by a party indemnified hereunder. . . .
After execution of the contract, two New Orleans Public School students were allegedly sexually molested by Francis O'Gara, an employee of the Lighthouse. As a result of the incident, the parents of the students filed separate suits against the Lighthouse and the OPSB.
Subsequently, the Lighthouse filed a motion for summary judgment. While the Lighthouse did not dispute that it was required to indemnify the OPSB for Mr. O'Gara's actions, it argued the indemnity clause did not require it to indemnify the OPSB for the OPSB's independent negligence. The OPSB filed a cross motion for summary judgment, arguing that all the claims in this case were dependent upon Mr. O'Gara's conduct; therefore, the Lighthouse was required to indemnify it for all negligence, including its independent negligence.
After a hearing, the trial court granted the motion for summary judgment filed by Lighthouse and denied OPSB's motion. In its judgment, the trial court found that the contracts in question between the OPSB and the Lighthouse require the Lighthouse to indemnify the OPSB for any acts of negligence or fault committed by the Lighthouse or its employees for which the OPSB is found to be liable. The court further found that the indemnity contracts in question do not require the Lighthouse to indemnify the OPSB for any acts of independent negligence committed by the OPSB or its employees.
From this ruling, the OPSB applied for supervisory relief. The Court of Appeal reversed the trial court's ruling. The court reasoned that the contractual language providing that "all claims . . . arising out the performance of any services to be performed under the terms of this Agreement," coupled with the language "regardless of whether or not it is caused by a party indemnified hereunder," was sufficient to encompass the OPSB's independent negligence. Accordingly, the court of appeal reversed the judgment of the trial court granting summary judgment in favor of the Lighthouse and rendered summary judgment in favor of the OPSB to require the Lighthouse to defe
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