Robert Krien, et al v. Harsco Corporation, et al
Filing
Filed opinion of the court by Judge Posner. The judgment in favor of Riley is therefore REVERSED and the case REMANDED with directions to enter judgment for Harsco. Richard A. Posner, Circuit Judge; Joel M. Flaum, Circuit Judge and David F. Hamilton, Circuit Judge. [6559527-1] [6559527] [13-2272]
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In the
United States Court of Appeals
For the Seventh Circuit
____________________
No. 13‐2272
ROBERT KRIEN, et al.,
Plaintiffs,
v.
HARSCO CORPORATION,
Defendant / Third‐Party Plaintiff‐Appellant,
v.
RILEY CONSTRUCTION COMPANY,
Third‐Party Defendant‐Appellee.
____________________
Appeal from the United States District Court for the
Eastern District of Wisconsin.
No. 2:10‐cv‐01004‐LA — Lynn Adelman, Judge.
____________________
ARGUED FEBRUARY 12, 2014 — DECIDED MARCH 13, 2014
____________________
Before POSNER, FLAUM, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.
POSNER, Circuit Judge. Before us is an appeal in a personal
injury suit brought by an employee of Riley Construction
named Krien. Riley, the general contractor of a construction
project in Wisconsin, had hired Harsco Corporation to sup‐
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ply scaffolding for the project. Krien, injured in a fall when a
plank on a scaffold that he was standing on broke, sued
Harsco. The parties settled his claim for $900,000. Even be‐
fore the settlement, Harsco had filed a third‐party complaint
against Riley, seeking indemnification for any damages that
Harsco might pay by way of judgment or settlement of
Krien’s suit, plus interest and attorneys’ fees. On cross‐
motions by Riley and Harsco for summary judgment on the
third‐party claim (all that remained of the case originally
brought by Krien), the district judge granted Riley’s motion
and denied Harsco’s, precipitating this appeal. The basis of
federal jurisdiction is diversity of citizenship. Wisconsin law
governs the substantive issues.
Harsco’s claim for indemnity is based on its contract with
Riley. The suit turns on the terms of the contract.
In negotiating the contract, the parties started with a
form contract of the Associated General Contractors of
America, a trade association. See Tellepsen Builders, L.P. v.
Kendall/Heaton Associates, Inc., 325 S.W.3d 692, 693 (Tex. App.
2010); cf. Fox Drywall & Plastering, Inc. v. Sioux Falls Construc‐
tion Co., No. 12‐4026‐KES, 2012 WL 1457183, at *8–9 (D. S.
Dak. Apr. 26, 2012). The form contract is very long—21 pag‐
es, mostly of fine print. Article 3, paragraph 3.25 (entitled
“Use of Riley Construction’s Equipment”) provides that
Harsco may use Riley’s equipment only with Riley’s “ex‐
press written permission,” and must “defend, indemnify
and be liable to Riley Construction as provided in Article 9
for any loss or damage (including bodily injury or death)
which may arise from” Harsco’s use of Riley’s equipment
“except to the extent that such loss or damage is caused by
the negligence of Riley Construction’s employees operating
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Riley Construction’s equipment.” A mirror‐image provision,
paragraph 4.8 (“Use of [Harsco’s] Equipment”), provides
that Riley and its employees may use Harsco equipment, in‐
cluding scaffolding, only with Harsco’s “express written
permission,” and that if Riley or its employees “utilize any
of [Harsco’s] equipment, including … scaffolding …,” Riley
“shall defend, indemnify and be liable to [Harsco] as pro‐
vided in Article 9 for any loss or damage (including bodily
injury or death) which may arise from such use, except to
the extent that such loss or damage is caused by the negli‐
gence of [Harsco’s] employees operating [Harsco’s] equip‐
ment.”
But when we go to Article 9, to which both provisions
that we’ve quoted from refer, we discover that the parties
had crossed out its first paragraph (paragraph 9.1.1), which
is entitled “Indemnity” and provides indemnity to Riley
similar to the indemnity granted it by paragraph 3.25 but
slightly broader: it excuses Harsco from having to indemnify
Riley only if the loss or damage is caused by “the sole negli‐
gence or willful misconduct of [Riley]” (emphasis added). At
the end of the contract, however, we find a series of provi‐
sions labeled “exhibits,” and one of them (Exhibit A Section
I(1)) requires Harsco to indemnify Riley for loss or damage
only if “caused or alleged to be caused in whole or in part by
the negligent acts or omissions of [Harsco].” A rider to the
contract (Rider 3) provides that “the language of any indem‐
nity … provisions notwithstanding, … [Harsco’s] obligations
shall be limited to [Harsco’s] sole negligence and propor‐
tionate share of joint or concurrent negligence.”
So the indemnity created by Exhibit A Section I(1), re‐
placing the deleted paragraph 9.1.1, is more favorable to
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Harsco than that paragraph. Yet Riley’s essential argument,
which the district judge accepted, is that the phrase in para‐
graph 4.8 “as provided in Article 9” confines paragraph 4.8
to indemnities mentioned in that article, and because the
parties crossed out paragraph 9.1.1 (captioned “Indemnity”),
Riley does not have to indemnify Harsco ever. The argument
is implausible. Harsco—a $3 billion industrial company op‐
erating worldwide, see “Harsco,” Wikipedia, http://en.wik
ipedia.org/wiki/Harsco (visited March 13, 2014)—is unlikely
to have allowed itself to be hoodwinked into giving up basic
contractual rights. The argument also ignores Exhibit A Sec‐
tion I, which gives Riley a more limited right of indemnity
against Harsco than Article 9 had given it.
A number of paragraphs in Articles 3 and 4 were crossed
out; one imagines that had the parties intended to delete the
indemnity in favor of Harsco they would have crossed out
paragraph 4.8 as well, and they did not. It would be odd if
by crossing out a paragraph in Article 9 they had meant to
delete paragraphs in an earlier article without saying so,
with the intention of granting two indemnities to Riley and
none to Harsco. And since portions of Article 9 that were not
crossed out bear on indemnity (such as paragraphs relating
to insurance and modification), the reference to Article 9 in
paragraphs 3.25 and 4.8 can’t be just to the deleted para‐
graph 9.1.1. The deletion of that paragraph therefore doesn’t
require that paragraph 4.8 be treated as a dead letter.
So paragraph 4.8 is alive and well. But does it apply to
Krien’s accident? Here’s what happened: Another employee
of Riley placed a plank that was lying elsewhere at the con‐
struction site on what is called an “undecked” scaffold—that
is, a scaffold that, having no deck (i.e., floor), is just a frame.
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Krien stepped on the plank after it was laid on the scaffold,
and the plank broke, causing him to fall seven feet and sus‐
tain very serious injuries. We don’t know whether the plank
was supplied by Harsco. It may not have been, because Riley
didn’t obtain all the scaffolding for the project from Harsco.
Krien’s suit against Harsco charged negligence, along with
strict liability (for the defective plank, allegedly supplied by
Harsco though as we said that’s never been proved). Both
the employee of Riley who was the immediate cause of the
accident and Krien were “utilizing” Harsco’s scaffolding,
maybe with the required permission (though this has not
been determined). For Harsco was not a conventional sub‐
contractor, who works at the construction site, but a supplier
of materials that workers employed by other subcontractors
or by the general contractor use at the site. The parties have
not made permission an issue, so we needn’t try to resolve it.
The plank may have been supplied by Harsco and may
have been defective, as claimed by Krien (who could not sue
Riley in tort, because against his employer his only remedy
for a work‐related accident was a claim for workers’ com‐
pensation). But there has never been a judicial resolution of
these questions, because Krien’s suit against Harsco was set‐
tled before there was any judgment. Even if supplied by
Harsco, the plank may not have been defective, but simply
carelessly laid by Krien’s co‐worker—an inference strength‐
ened by the fact that OSHA determined that Riley’s “lack of
proper training and inspections on the scaffold led to the ac‐
cident.” And not only were the two Riley employees “utiliz‐
ing” the plank—and the indemnity provision in paragraph
4.8 (indemnity of Harsco) is triggered by a Riley employee’s
“utiliz[ing] … equipment” supplied by Harsco—but the ex‐
ception to the indemnity for an accident “caused by the neg‐
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ligence of [Harsco in] operating” that “equipment” is inap‐
plicable because there is no suggestion that any employee of
Harsco did anything negligent with the plank after it was
delivered to the construction site.
In rejecting Harsco’s indemnity claim the district judge
made the unexpected statement that “a strict liability claim
… is a type of negligence claim.” Doubtless what he meant is
that a claim of strict products liability is much like a negli‐
gence claim because it requires proof either that the product
was unreasonably dangerous or, what amounts to the same
thing, that it was defective. E.g., Godoy ex rel. Gramling v. E.I.
du Pont de Nemours & Co., 743 N.W.2d 159, 162 (Wis. App.
2007), modified and affirmed, 768 N.W.2d 674 (Wis. 2009);
Insolia v. Philip Morris Inc., 216 F.3d 596, 604–06 (7th Cir.
2000); Scott v. White Trucks, 699 F.2d 714, 718–19 (5th Cir.
1983). But so what? There is no evidence that it was Harsco’s
plank, as we keep saying; and even if it was, and was defec‐
tive, the exception (to Riley’s duty of indemnity) for an acci‐
dent caused by Harsco’s negligence in “operating” the plank
would not encompass a defect in manufacture or transporta‐
tion. For what could it mean to “operate” a wooden plank
other than to lay, move, or remove it, which was not done by
any employee of Harsco.
Riley insists that Krien’s settlement with Harsco proves
that Harsco’s negligence was responsible for the accident. It
proves no such thing, not only because the only relevant
negligence would be in operating Harsco equipment and be‐
cause it’s not even known whether the plank was supplied
by Harsco, but also because a settlement is not a determina‐
tion of liability. It appears that Krien’s damages substantially
exceed $900,000, so, provided there was uncertainty about
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the outcome of his suit, Harsco may have settled a case that,
had it spun the roulette wheel of litigation to judgment, it
would have won. For all we know, Krien’s lawyer himself
thinks that Riley’s negligence, and not any wrongdoing by
Harsco, was responsible for the accident, but Krien could not
sue Riley in tort because of the immunity conferred by the
workers’ compensation law. Wis. Stat. § 102.03(2); see, e.g.,
County of Dane v. Labor & Industry Review Comm’n, 759
N.W.2d 571, 582 (Wis. 2009); Mulder v. Acme‐Cleveland Corp.,
290 N.W.2d 276, 278 (Wis. 1980).
Riley argues that the immunity shields it from having to
indemnify Harsco for an injury to Riley’s employee; for if
Riley has to indemnify Harsco, it will be as if Krien had sued
Riley instead of Harsco, which would indeed violate the
workers’ compensation law. But there is nothing in Wiscon‐
sin law to prevent Riley from waiving its workers’ compen‐
sation exemption, Larsen v. J. I. Case Co., 155 N.W.2d 666, 668
(Wis. 1968); Schaub v. West Bend Mutual, 536 N.W.2d 123, 124
(Wis. App. 1995), and it did so in paragraph 4.8. The indem‐
nity conferred by that paragraph would be seriously incom‐
plete without such a waiver. Employees of Riley are among
the persons likely to be injured as a result of using a subcon‐
tractor’s equipment, and being barred by workers’ compen‐
sation law from bringing a tort suit against their employer
they are likely to sue the subcontractor, as Krien did in this
case.
Harsco may have been negligent after all, and Riley ar‐
gues that it’s unthinkable that someone whose negligence is
responsible for a harm should be entitled to indemnification.
Not so. Indemnification is a form of insurance. Liability in‐
surance provides indemnity for damages caused by the in‐
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sured’s negligence. The indemnity provisions in the contract
between Riley and Harsco were the equivalent of provisions
in insurance policies.
The remaining issue is whether Riley’s duty to indemnify
Harsco extends to the several hundred thousand dollars of
legal expenses incurred by Harsco in defending against
Krien’s suit and also in litigating the current suit. It does.
Paragraph 4.8 required Riley to “defend” Harsco against
Krien’s suit, implying that Riley would bear that cost. See
Barrons v. J. H. Findorff & Sons, Inc., 278 N.W.2d 827, 830, 835
(Wis. 1979); Huset v. Milwaukee Dressed Beef Co., 174 N.W.2d
740, 745 (Wis. 1970); Sauk County v. Employers Ins. of Wausau,
623 N.W.2d 174, 178–79 (Wis. App. 2000); Balcor Real Estate
Holdings, Inc. v. Walentas‐Phoenix Corp., 73 F.3d 150, 152–53
(7th Cir. 1996). For if Harsco had to pay, the requirement
that Riley defend it would have no meaning. Riley must
therefore reimburse Harsco’s attorneys’ fees (which Riley
doesn’t contend were excessive or improvident). And finally
Harsco is entitled to prejudgment interest at the rate of 5
percent per annum. U.S. Fire Ins. Co. v. Good Humor Corp.,
496 N.W.2d 730, 740–41 (Wis. App. 1993).
In summary, the district court should have granted
summary judgment in favor of Harsco. The judgment in fa‐
vor of Riley is therefore reversed and the case remanded
with directions to enter judgment for Harsco.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
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