Alaska Supreme Court Finds Contractors' Duty to Defend, Not Indemnify

ANCHORAGE -- Finding a subcontractor's employees' asbestos-exposure injuries were within the scope of two indemnity contracts, the Alaskan Supreme Court has affirmed that a duty to defend existed between the contractor and a hospital, and reversed that it did not exist between a subcontractor and the contractor.

Because issues of material fact precluded a ruling on the duty to indemnify under both contracts, the high court also reversed a lower court ruling that the contractor owed a duty to indemnify the hospital and affirmed a ruling denying summary judgment on the issue of the subcontractor's duty to indemnify the …