Nebraska: Indemnity Agreement Costs ConAgra $108.9 Million Following Explosion at NC Facility

Where ConAgra, the large food manufacturer, had contracted with Jacobs Engineering (Jacobs) for engineering services connected to its Garner, North Carolina facility and the parties included within the contract a clause whereby each agreed to indemnify the other against claims arising from the respective party’s negligence, that express indemnity clause was not negated by the exclusive remedy provisions of the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Act. Accordingly, where Jacobs was subjected to claims resulting from an explosion at ConAgra’s facility, demanded indemnity from ConAgra—the N.C. Department of Labor found Jacobs had performed no work that could have contributed to the explosion—and ConAgra refused, Jacobs was justified in defending and settling the 67 claims against it for $108.9 million (the total settlement among all parties exceeded $500 million) and a Nebraska trial court appropriately entered judgment on a verdict in that amount in an indemnification law suit filed by Jacobs against ConAgra. Three ConAgra employees were killed in the explosion and many were injured.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Jacobs Eng'g Group Inc. v. ConAgra Foods, Inc., 2018 Neb. LEXIS 159 (Sept. 14, 2018)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 121.04.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law