Subcontractor has a duty to defend

Rights of indemnity were discussed in the recent case of Crawford v. Weather Shield Mfg. Inc. The case holds that a subcontractor's contractual duty to defend developer covered suit that only alleged a covered claim. Under a subcontractor's indemnity agreement with its general contractor, the subcontractor had a duty to defend the general contractor against a homeowners' construction defect action, because the action alleged negligence by the subcontractor that would have brought the claim within the subcontractor's contractual duty to indemnify. The duty to defend arose as soon as the homeowners brought the action, and regardless of the fact that the subcontractor was eventually found not negligent. The agreement was not affected by a statute, effective in 2006, voiding contract terms obliging subcontractors to indemnify certain other project participants.