Centex Golden Construction Co. v. Dale Tile Co.

An agreement by a subcontractor to indemnify a general contractor for any claim made with respect to the work covered by or incidental to their subcontract may require indemnity even if the claim is not meritorious and the subcontractor is not guilty of any negligence. Thus we affirm the trial court’s judgment in favor of a general contractor against a subcontractor on the general contractor’s claim for indemnity, even though a jury found that the subcontractor had not been guilty of any negligence.

Summary

Plaintiff and respondent Centex Golden Construction Company (Golden) was the general contractor responsible for construction of a commercial building. Defendant and appellant Dale Tile Company (Dale) was the tile subcontractor on the project. Dale executed a subcontract which contained the following indemnity provision:

Following completion of the project, the owner made a number of claims against Golden, including a claim that the tile work was defective. Golden settled the claims made by the owner and demanded indemnity from the subcontractors whose work had given rise to the claim. With the exception of Dale, each of the subcontractors upon whom Golden made a…