Milliken & Co. v. Ga. Power Co.
Milliken & Co. v. Ga. Power Co.
Opinion of the Court
**6In 2013, a small business jet crashed into a Georgia Power Company transmission pole on Milliken & Company's property near the Thomson-McDuffie Regional Airport in Thomson, Georgia. The two pilots were injured and the five passengers died. In the wake of the crash, the pilots and the families of the deceased passengers filed a total of seven lawsuits against multiple defendants, including Georgia Power and Milliken. The complaints in those seven suits alleged that a transmission pole located on Milliken's property was negligently erected and maintained within the airport's protected airspace. The record evidence shows that Georgia Power constructed the transmission pole on Milliken's property for the purpose of **7providing electricity to Milliken's manufacturing-plant expansion, and that the pole was constructed pursuant to a 1989 Easement between Georgia Power and Milliken. In each of the seven suits, Milliken filed identical cross-claims against Georgia Power, alleging that Georgia Power was contractually obligated to indemnify Milliken "for all sums that Plaintiffs may recover from Milliken" under Paragraph 12 of the 1989 Easement, which provides:
[Georgia Power] Company, its successors or assigns shall hold [Milliken], its successors or assigns harmless from any damages to property or persons (including death), or both, which result from [Georgia Power] Company's construction, operation or maintenance of its facilities on said easement areas herein granted.
Georgia Power moved for summary judgment on the cross-claims. The trial court granted summary judgment to Georgia Power in all seven actions, reasoning that Paragraph 12 of the 1989 Easement operates as a covenant not to sue, rather than as an indemnity agreement, because it "nowhere contains the word 'indemnity' " and "it is not so comprehensive regarding protection from liability." All seven cases were appealed to the Court of Appeals.
*113Case Number S18G0876 .
The Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Georgia Power in the six cases underlying our Case Number S18G0876. Milliken & Co. v. Georgia Power Co. ,
We granted Milliken's petition for certiorari and posed a single question: Did the Court of Appeals err in its construction and application of OCGA § 13-8-2 (b) ? Because our answer to that question is yes, we vacate the Court of Appeals' judgment and remand the case for the Court of Appeals to consider, in the first instance, the trial court's rationale for granting Georgia Power's motions for summary judgment and any other arguments properly before the Court of Appeals.
1. On appeal from a grant of summary judgment, we review legal questions de novo and review the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party to determine whether there is a genuine issue of material fact. Barnett v. Caldwell ,
"As a general rule[,] a party may contract away liability to the other party for the consequences of his own negligence without contravening public policy, except when such agreement is prohibited by statute." Lanier at McEver v. Planners & Eng'rs Collaborative ,
A covenant, promise, agreement, or understanding in or in connection with or collateral to a contract or agreement relative to the construction, alteration, repair, or maintenance of a building structure, appurtenances, and appliances, including moving, demolition, and excavating connected therewith, purporting to indemnify or hold harmless the promisee against liability for damages arising out of bodily injury to persons or damage to property caused by or resulting from the sole negligence of the promisee, his agents **9or employees, or indemnitee is against public policy and is void and unenforceable ....
(Emphasis supplied).
*114Kennedy Dev. Co. v. Camp ,
(a) Against this backdrop, we turn to the 1989 Easement and evaluate it under former OCGA § 13-8-2 (b). With respect to the first of the two conditions contained in former OCGA § 13-8-2 (b), the 1989 Easement that contains Paragraph 12 also gave Georgia Power a right of way
to construct, erect, install, operate, maintain, inspect, reconstruct, repair, rebuild, renew and replace thereon a substation and overhead and underground electric transmission, distribution and communication lines, with necessary or convenient towers, frames, poles, wires, manholes, conduits, transformers, switches, breakers and communication equipment, with the necessary wires, fixtures, appliances, protective wires and devices, buildings, sewers, drains, fences and other facilities in connection therewith .... including the right ... to clear, grade, fill excavate, ditch and drain said substation tract.
This language relates "to the construction, alteration, repair, or maintenance of a building structure, appurtenances, and appliances, including moving, demolition, and excavating connected therewith." Former OCGA § 13-8-2 (b). See, e.g., Newton's Crest Homeowners' Assn. v. Camp ,
(b) The question then becomes whether Paragraph 12-i.e., the indemnity provision in the 1989 Easement-satisfies the second condition contained in former OCGA § 13-8-2 (b). The statute prohibits "covenant[s], promise[s], or understanding[s]" made in connection with, or collateral to, contracts or agreements satisfying the first condition and "purporting to indemnify or hold harmless the promisee against liability for damages arising out of bodily injury to persons or damage to property caused by or resulting from the sole negligence of the promisee, his agents or employees, or indemnitee ." Former OCGA § 13-8-2 (b) (emphasis supplied). In contrast to the statute, the plain terms of Paragraph 12 require Georgia Power to hold Milliken harmless from "any damages to property or persons ... which result from [Georgia Power ] Company's construction, operation or maintenance of its facilities on said easement areas herein granted." (Emphasis supplied). Paragraph 12, then, indemnifies Milliken for damages resulting from Georgia Power's acts or omissions, whereas the statute would prohibit an agreement that provides indemnity for damages resulting from Milliken's sole negligence. In short, Paragraph 12, and thus the 1989 Easement, do not do that which the statute prohibits.
Looking beyond the plain terms of the indemnity provision and relying on the Court of Appeals' reasoning below, Georgia Power argues that Paragraph 12 is void under OCGA § 13-8-2 (b) because "as set forth in Milliken's cross-claims, Milliken sought indemnification from Georgia power for 'all sums that Plaintiff may recover from Milliken.' " See Milliken & Co. ,
This argument is viable if we look only to, and rely only upon, the pleadings filed in support of Milliken's cross-claims and ignore the plain terms of the indemnity provision contained in the 1989 Easement. Yet the allegations lodged in Milliken's cross-claims cannot and do not alter the language contained in Paragraph 12, and therefore cannot cause Paragraph 12 to violate former OCGA § 13-8-2 (b). Indeed, as the title and language of that statute state, former OCGA § 13-8-2 (b) concerns what renders a contract or agreement void as against public policy, and specifically concerns what "[a] covenant, promise, agreement, or understanding in or in connection with or collateral to a contract or agreement" purports to require. Former OCGA § 13-8-2 (b). It is therefore the language *116of the contract or agreement itself , and not other extraneous language (including Milliken's cross-claims) characterizing or making demands pursuant to it, that must be analyzed under the statute. See Georgia Ports Auth. v. Central of Georgia R. Co. ,
So understood, Paragraph 12 of the 1989 Easement between Milliken and Georgia Power plainly does not satisfy the second condition contained in former OCGA § 13-8-2 (b), and therefore does not violate public policy. That is because Paragraph 12 applies only to damages "which result from [Georgia Power ] Company's construction, operation or maintenance of its facilities" on the easement area. That language necessarily limits the indemnity to damages "result[ing] from" Georgia Power's acts or omissions and necessarily excludes instances in which Georgia Power has not in any way caused the damages. In other words, indemnification applies only in those cases where damages "result from" Georgia Power's "construction, operation[,] or maintenance of its facilities on [the] easement area," whether those damages result from Georgia Power in whole or in part.
The agreements examined in those cases, like the indemnity provision contained in Paragraph 12, avoided OCGA § 13-8-2 (b) 's prohibition because they did not require indemnification when damages were caused solely by the indemnitee's negligence.
Contrary to Georgia Power's contention, the indemnity provision here does not purport to require Georgia Power to hold Milliken harmless for "any damages" without limitation. Paragraph 12's textual parameters, which limit indemnification to damages resulting from Georgia Power's negligence, distinguish the 1989 Easement from the indemnity agreements that have been invalidated in other cases for purporting to require indemnity for "any damages" or "all claims," without limitation-or at least without limitation to indemnitor or third-party negligence. See, e.g., Kennedy ,
Case Number S18G1107.
One month after the opinion in Milliken ,
Judgments vacated and cases remanded.
All the Justices concur, except Ellington, J., disqualified.
Six of the seven cases were consolidated on appeal and underlie our Case Number S18G0876. The remaining case had been dismissed and refiled below, which led to a trial court order disposing of that case later than the other cases (although the order did so for the same reasons). As a result, that case was appealed after a new term of the Court of Appeals had begun and is the sole case underlying our Case Number S18G1107, which we discuss at the end of this opinion.
Several amendments that are not relevant to our decision have been made to OCGA § 13-8-2 (b) over the years.
In Kennedy , we analyzed another version of OCGA § 13-8-2 (b), but given that former OCGA § 13-8-2 (b) is materially the same, the analysis in Kennedy also applies here.
To the extent Georgia Power looks to the plain terms of Paragraph 12, its primary argument is that the "any damage to property or person" language contained in that provision violates former OCGA § 13-8-2 (b) -but only when that language is read "in conjunction with" the language of Milliken's cross-claims. For the reasons described below, that reading is no different than analyzing the text of Paragraph 12 alone.
Georgia Power also argues that the phrase "any damages" in Paragraph 12 is an "all or nothing proposition" and therefore violates former OCGA § 13-8-2 (b). Citing Frazer v. City of Albany ,
Practically speaking, that means that indemnification could potentially apply in certain instances where the combined negligence of Georgia Power and Milliken or even Georgia Power and other entities results in damages. But none of those scenarios would implicate the statute's prohibition on indemnification for an indemnitee's "sole negligence."
Georgia Power does argue that any negligence by Milliken could only be sole negligence in this case, and that Paragraph 12 must therefore be void under former OCGA § 13-8-2 (b). That argument goes like this: In addition to the 1989 Easement with Georgia Power, Milliken also had a 1973 Aviation Easement with the City of Thomson and McDuffie County that required Milliken to keep the airspace above its property clear for the airport's use. Pointing to Plaintiffs' allegations that the duty imposed by this 1973 Aviation Easement was non-delegable, Georgia Power suggests that by permitting Georgia Power to erect the transmission pole in the airspace protected by that easement, Milliken was solely negligent for the plane crash.
The 1973 Aviation Easement, however, makes no mention of any duty being non-delegable, and Georgia Power points to no authority-either in statute or case law-supporting that proposition. Moreover, Plaintiffs' complaints, in addition to alleging that Milliken was negligent in failing to keep the airspace above its property clear in accordance with the 1973 Aviation Easement, also allege that Georgia Power was separately negligent in its design and construction of the transmission line.
Georgia Power moves this Court to supplement the record to add a defense verdict in favor of Milliken in one of the six cases (McCorkle, et al. v. Georgia Power Company, et al. , Civil Action No. 15EV000163D,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- MILLIKEN & COMPANY v. GEORGIA POWER COMPANY.
- Cited By
- 15 cases
- Status
- Published