Snyder's-Lance Inc. v. Cowen Truck Line, Inc. , 572 F. App'x 824 ( 2014 )

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[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
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No. 13-15945
Non-Argument Calendar
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D.C. Docket No. 4:12-cv-00598-RH-CAS
SNYDER’S-LANCE INC.,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
versus
COWEN TRUCK LINE, INC.,
Defendant-Appellee.
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Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Northern District of Florida
________________________
(July 21, 2014)
Before HULL, MARCUS and ROSENBAUM, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
In this diversity action, Snyder’s-Lance Inc. (“SLI”), appeals the district
court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Cowen Truck Line, Inc. (“Cowen”),
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on SLI’s complaint seeking to recover from Cowen, pursuant to a contractual
indemnity provision, expenses incurred in defending and settling a wrongful-death
lawsuit. After a review of the record and the parties’ briefs, we affirm. 1
I.
SLI is a snack-food manufacturer. Through a transportation consultant—
Transportation Insight, LLC—SLI hired Cowen, a freight carrier, to haul goods
from an SLI plant in Ohio to an SLI plant in Florida. Pursuant to the agreement, a
Cowen driver, Charles Taft, delivered a load of SLI goods to the Florida plant.
After Mr. Taft backed his truck into the loading dock, he exited the truck on foot,
crossed a concrete barrier, and entered an adjoining loading dock, where,
apparently, Mr. Taft attempted to retrieve chrome lug nuts that had come off his
truck. While Mr. Taft was in the adjacent dock, he was run over and killed by an
SLI truck, which an SLI employee was backing into the dock at the time.
Mr. Taft’s estate brought a wrongful-death action in Florida state court
against SLI and the SLI employee based solely on the negligence of SLI’s
employee. Faced with the lawsuit, SLI demanded that Cowen defend SLI pursuant
to an indemnity provision in the governing contract. Cowen denied that the
provision applied and refused to provide a defense. Later, SLI settled the
1
A motions panel of this Court granted SLI’s motion to amend the deficient allegations
of diversity of citizenship, and we have subject-matter jurisdiction to decide this appeal. See 28
U.S.C. §§ 1332, 1653.
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negligence action for $750,000.00, without admitting fault, and incurred
$473,064.95 in attorney’s fees and costs. SLI brought this action to recover these
amounts from Cowen under the indemnity provision.
The contract at issue in this dispute is between Transportation Insight and
Cowen. Transportation Insight is a third-party freight provider who contracts with
various carriers, including Cowen, to provide freight services for its clients,
including SLI. No dispute exists over whether SLI may bring an action based on
the contract; it can.
Therefore, we review two provisions of the contract relevant to this appeal.
First, the contract provides that North Carolina law governs. Second, the contract
contains an indemnity provision, which provides as follows:
“CARRIER [Cowen] agrees to indemnify, defend and hold
TRANSPORTATION INSIGHT and CLIENTS [SLI] their agents,
employees, and principals harmless from and against any and all
direct and indirect claims arising out of or resulting from
transportation provided pursuant to this Agreement, including, but not
limited to, claims for bodily injury, death, property damage, attorney
fees, loss, damage or delay. CARRIER’S Liability under this
indemnity and hold harmless provision shall be reduced in proportion
to the degree of negligence, if any, of TRANSPORTATION
INSIGHT or CLIENTS.”
The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Cowen on two
alternative grounds. First, the court concluded that the indemnity provision did not
apply because the accident did not arise out of or result from transportation
provided pursuant to the contract. At the time of the incident, “Mr. Taft was not
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transporting goods or otherwise performing any duty under the contract.” Rather,
he had completed the transportation of the goods and was simply a pedestrian on
the premises when he was killed. Furthermore, the SLI truck and employee were
not engaged in transportation provided pursuant to the contract. The court found
that, “[o]n any proper reading of the indemnity clause,” Cowen did not agree to
indemnify SLI in these circumstances.
Second, the district court determined that the indemnity provision did not
apply to a claim, like the wrongful-death action at issue, alleging only that the
indemnitee itself was negligent. Relying on Hill v. Carolina Freight Carriers
Corp., 71 S.E.2d 133 (N.C. 1952), the court stated that an indemnity provision
does not apply to such a claim unless the provision explicitly shows that the parties
intended to indemnify the indemnitee’s own negligence. The court found that
allowing SLI to recover in these circumstances was inconsistent with the purpose
of the provision:
The clause’s primary purpose was to ensure that if Cowen’s acts
caused an injury—if, for example, a Cowen driver caused a wreck
while transporting goods under the contract—and if, as a result, the
injured party sued not only Cowen but also Transportation Insight or
[SLI], perhaps on the theory that Cowen was acting as their agent,
then responsibility for defending the lawsuit and paying any loss
would fall on Cowen, not on Transportation Insight or [SLI]. The
clause plainly was not intended to allow [SLI] to escape responsibility
for its own driver’s negligence in causing an accident. In short,
Cowen undertook responsibility for its own trucking operation, but
not for the operation by [SLI] of its own trucks.
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Furthermore, the district court found that the second sentence of the provision,
which limited Cowen’s liability in proportion to the negligence of Transportation
Insight or its clients, underscored that the purpose of the provision was to relieve
Transportation Insight and SLI from responsibility for damages caused by Cowen
but not to relieve them of responsibility for their own negligence.
SLI moved for reconsideration of the judgment under Rule 59(e), Fed. R.
Civ. P., arguing, among other things, that the district court failed to distinguish
between an allegation of negligence and a finding of negligence. Instead, the court
simply relied on the allegations that SLI was negligent to determine SLI’s rights
under the indemnity provision. The district court denied the Rule 59(e) motion,
stating that the allegations themselves were not covered by the indemnity
provision, so Cowen had no duty to defend or to indemnify. SLI timely brought
this appeal.
SLI argues that the district court erred in granting summary judgment in
favor of Cowen for two primary reasons. First, the court relied solely upon the
allegations of wrongdoing, rather than an actual finding of wrongdoing, to
determine SLI’s rights. Second, the court erred in narrowly interpreting the
“arising out of or resulting from” clause in the contract, particularly when the court
made no findings of fact with respect to Mr. Taft’s actions at the time of the
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incident. Finally, SLI argues that the court should have granted summary
judgment in its favor based on the plain language of the indemnity provision.
II.
We review a district court’s grant of summary judgment de novo. Holloman
v. Mail-Well Corp., 443 F.3d 832, 836 (11th Cir. 2006). Summary judgment is
appropriate when, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the
nonmoving party, “the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any
material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R.
Civ. P. 56(a); see Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322-23, 106 S. Ct. 2548,
2552, 91 L. Ed. 2d 265 (1986); Holloman, 443 F.3d at 836-37. Interpretation of a
contract is a question of law reviewed de novo. Tobin v. Mich. Mut. Ins. Co., 398
F.3d 1267, 1274 (11th Cir. 2005).
Initially, we consider whether the wrongful-death action was a claim
“arising out of or resulting from transportation provided pursuant to [the]
Agreement.” Mr. Taft may have completed the transportation of SLI’s goods and
simply may have been on the premises as a pedestrian at the time that the accident
occurred. But the district court did not make any detailed factual findings with
respect to Mr. Taft’s actions at the time of the incident, so we instead resolve this
appeal on the district court’s alternative and sufficient ground for granting
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summary judgment: that the indemnity provision did not cover a claim alleging
only SLI’s negligence.
A court’s “primary purpose in construing a contract of indemnity is to
ascertain and give effect to the intention of the parties, and the ordinary rules of
construction apply.” Schenkel & Shultz, Inc. v. Hermon F. Fox & Assocs., P.C.,
658 S.E.2d 918, 921 (N.C. 2008) (quotation omitted). An indemnity provision
must be appraised in relation to the contract as a whole. Id.
A standard contract of indemnity “will be construed to cover all losses,
damages, and liabilities which reasonably appear to have been within the
contemplation of the parties.” Id. at 922 (quotation marks and citation omitted).
But exculpatory provisions, “whereby a party seeks to protect itself from liability
arising from its own negligence,” are strictly construed:
Contracts which seek to exculpate one of the parties from liability for
his own negligence are not favored by the law. Hence it is a universal
rule that such exculpatory clause is strictly construed against the party
asserting it. It will never be so construed as to exempt the indemnitee
from liability for his own negligence or the negligence of his
employees in the absence of explicit language clearly indicating that
such was the intent of the parties.
Id. (quoting Hill, 71 S.E.2d at 137 (citations omitted)).
SLI argues that Cowen is liable under the indemnity provision because
Cowen “unambiguously” agreed to defend SLI and its employees against “any and
all direct or indirect claims,” Cowen failed to provide such a defense and thereby
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caused SLI to incur the costs of defense and settlement, and SLI was not found to
be negligent. According to SLI, this Court need not determine whether the
indemnity provision should be interpreted to provide indemnity for SLI against its
own negligence because the second sentence limiting Cowen’s liability resolves
the issue. Based on that sentence, SLI argues that Cowen “must defend SLI with
respect to the claim and then, if SLI is found to be at least partially negligent,
[Cowen’s] liability would be reduced proportionally.” The parties would “settle
up” after a determination of liability is made.
We conclude that SLI is not entitled to recover under the indemnity
provision because its losses do not “reasonably appear to have been within the
contemplation of the parties.” Schenkel & Shultz, 658 S.E.2d at 922.
In determining whether a party is obligated under a contract to tender a
defense to another party, “the facts as alleged in the complaint are to be taken as
true and compared to the language” of the contract. See Harleysville Mut. Ins. Co.
v. Buzz Off Insect Shield, L.L.C., 692 S.E.2d 605, 610-11 (N.C. 2010) (concerning
an insurer’s duties to defend and to indemnify); Waste Mgmt. of Carolinas, Inc. v.
Peerless Ins. Co., 340 S.E.2d 374, 377 (N.C. 1986) (concerning an insurer’s duty
to defend). 2 If the contract provides coverage for the facts as alleged, the
2
SLI asserts that case law concerning an insurer’s duty to defend or to indemnify
pursuant to an insurance contract is somehow inapposite to the instant situation, which also
involves a contractual obligation to defend and to indemnify. But SLI has offered no valid
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indemnitor has an obligation to defend. See Harleysville, 692 S.E.2d at 611. By
contrast, the duty to indemnify “is measured by the facts ultimately determined at
trial.” Id. at 610. In that sense, the duty to defend is broader than the duty to
indemnify. Id. at 610-11.
The underlying wrongful-death claim for which SLI seeks reimbursement
was premised solely on the negligence of SLI and its employee. Therefore, in
order to determine whether Cowen had a duty to defend—in essence, whether the
claim on its face was covered by the indemnity provision—we must address
whether the indemnity provision can be construed so “as to exempt the indemnitee
from liability for his own negligence or the negligence of his employees.” See
Schenkel & Shultz, 658 S.E.2d at 922. Here, neither the indemnity provision nor
the contract as a whole explicitly indicates that the parties intended to indemnify
Transportation Insight or its clients from their own negligence, and SLI does not
contend that they do.
Rather, if any explicit intent is found in the contract, it is that Cowen would
not be responsible for the indemnitees’ negligence, which the second sentence of
the indemnity provision makes clear. SLI reads this second sentence as somehow
expanding Cowen’s duty to defend until a determination of liability is made, but
reason for this distinction—and we find none apparent—particularly when the indemnity
provision at issue provides for both obligations.
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that is not a reasonable construction of the agreement, particularly in light of
established North Carolina law concerning strict construction of exculpatory
provisions. Accordingly, we cannot construe the indemnity provision to cover a
claim based on the negligence of SLI or its employees because there is no “explicit
language clearly indicating that such was the intent of the parties.” Id.
Therefore, Cowen did not have an obligation to defend SLI against the
wrongful-death complaint because the claim, taken as true, was not covered by the
indemnity provision. See Harleysville, 692 S.E.2d at 611. Because no duty to
defend arose, no duty to indemnify exists, even if SLI ultimately settled without
admitting fault. 3 See, e.g., Trailer Bridge, Inc. v. Illinois Nat’l Ins. Co., 657 F.3d
1135, 1146 (11th Cir. 2011) (citing a case for the proposition that a “court’s
determination that the insurer has no duty to defend requires a finding that there is
no duty to indemnify”); Nat’l Cas. Co. v. McFatridge, 604 F.3d 335, 338 (7th Cir.
2010) (“If an insurer has no duty to defend, it has no duty to indemnify.”); Penn-
America Ins. Co. v. Coffey, 368 F.3d 409, 413 (4th Cir. 2004) (“Although an
insurer’s duty to indemnify will depend on resolution of facts alleged in the
3
We do not find the case of Stephens v. Chevron Oil Co., 517 F.2d 1123 (5th Cir. 1975),
to be controlling. First, Stephens was decided under Louisiana law, which is not at issue here.
Second, the Fifth Circuit later acknowledged that “the Stephens court overlooked controlling
Louisiana precedent” and that “post-Stephens decisions of the Louisiana courts” had reached
contrary results. Sullen v. Mo. Pac. R. Co., 750 F.2d 428, 433 (5th Cir. 1985). The Fifth
Circuit’s decision in Sullen supports the result we reach in this case. See Sullen, 750 F.2d at 433-
34 (holding that, since the underlying pleadings alleged only the negligence of the indemnitee,
the indemnitor had no duty to defend).
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complaint, no such factfinding is necessary if there is no duty to defend because the
allegations, even when taken as proved, would fall outside the policy’s
coverage.”). Thus, the district court did not err in relying on allegations of
negligence rather than actual findings of negligence, because that was the
appropriate way to determine whether the underlying claim, on its face, was within
the scope of the indemnity provision.
More generally, we conclude that SLI’s interpretation of the indemnity
provision is unreasonable in light of the contract as a whole. See Schenkel &
Shultz, 658 S.E.2d at 921-22. The contract generally provides that Cowen would
operate as a carrier on behalf of SLI, among others, for goods and services that SLI
needed transported, and SLI would have little to no control over events while the
goods were in Cowen’s trucks during transportation. Accordingly, we agree with
the district court that the “clause’s primary purpose was to ensure that if Cowen’s
acts caused an injury,” and as a result, the injured party sued not only Cowen but
SLI, “responsibility for defending the lawsuit and paying any loss would fall on
Cowen.” In a similar vein, we think that Cowen is correct when it states that the
provision was intended “to provide a defense/indemnity to SLI in those situations
in which SLI may have some joint and several liability or some technical or
derivative/vicarious liability.” The claim for which SLI seeks to recover does not
implicate these purposes.
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For instance, SLI did not contend in the district court, and does not argue on
appeal, that Cowen is liable for the wrongful-death action due to any negligence on
Cowen’s part, or that SLI’s alleged fault is somehow derivative of Cowen’s fault.
For these reasons, the case of Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc. v. Ogden Plant
Maintenance Co. of North Carolina, 548 S.E.2d 807 (N.C. Ct. App. 2001), does
not support SLI’s position. In Bridgestone, wrongful-death suits based on
negligence were brought against the plaintiff-indemnitee and the defendants-
indemnitors after an industrial accident resulting in two deaths. Id. at 809. The
plaintiff settled the claims of direct and active negligence against it during trial and
then sought indemnification from the defendants for the costs of settling the
claims, pursuant to contractual indemnity provisions. Id. at 809-10. The plaintiff
alleged that it could only have been liable based on some passive or derivative
fault. Id. at 811. The court found that the plaintiff could proceed with its action
because it was seeking indemnification for sums paid as a result of the defendant’s
negligence, so it was not attempting to hold the defendants liable for the plaintiff’s
own negligence. See id. at 810-12. Here, SLI is not seeking to hold Cowen liable
for any negligence on Cowen’s part, so Bridgestone does not support SLI’s
position in this case.
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III.
In short, we hold that SLI is not entitled to recover from Cowen the costs of
defending and settling the wrongful-death claim because the indemnity provision
did not expressly indicate the parties’ intent to indemnify the negligence of SLI or
its employees. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the district court.
AFFIRMED.
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