Hatzel

The defendants, construction contractors, appeal from a judgment declaring that they are obligated to indemnify the plaintiffs by virtue of a hold harmless and indemnification clause contained in an agreement whereby the defendants, with other contractors, undertook to construct a new industrial plant in its entirety for the plaintiff Harvey Machine Company, Inc. The plaintiff Pacific Indemnity Company is Harvey’s insurer against “liability imposed by law.”

The cause as framed by the pleadings was submitted to the trial court on an agreed statement of facts. It appears therefrom that, pursuant to the terms of a written agreement, the defendants undertook to make certain electrical installations in Harvey’s plant then under construction. While the defendants and other construction contractors were thus engaged, Sam Mann, an employee of the defendants while engaged in his duties on the premises, fell into an open elevator pit. The pit and elevator comprised a part of the overall installation on which Mann was employed. He sustained injuries for which he recovered a workmen’s compensation award pursuant to his status as an employee of the defendants. He thereafter commenced an…