Walgreen Company v. Monica Pappalardo and Dynaserv Florida, LLC

Summary

The Sixth District Court of Appeal of Florida reviewed summary judgments involving Walgreen Company’s contractual indemnity crossclaim against Dynaserv Florida, LLC. The court held that the contractual indemnity claim depended on the express terms of the agreement and was not precluded by Dynaserv’s lack of tort duty to the injured plaintiff or by the plaintiff’s allegation that Walgreen breached a non-delegable duty. The court reversed the judgment against Walgreen on the Count V Crossclaim and affirmed the remaining judgments and orders.

Holdings

1. A contractual indemnity claim is governed by the express terms of the indemnification agreement, so whether Dynaserv owed a tort duty to Pappalardo was irrelevant to the validity of Walgreen's contractual indemnity crossclaim.
2. The allegations in Pappalardo's negligence claim against Walgreen could not vitiate Walgreen's contractual indemnity claim against Dynaserv.
3. Dynaserv was not entitled to summary judgment because it neither produced evidence that it complied with the contractual notification obligation nor pointed out that Walgreen lacked evidence to prove noncompliance.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the trial court properly granted summary judgment against Walgreen on its contractual indemnity crossclaim based on the conclusion that Dynaserv owed no tort duty to Pappalardo.
2. Whether the allegations that Walgreen breached a non-delegable duty precluded Walgreen's contractual indemnity claim.
3. Whether Dynaserv met its initial summary-judgment burden by addressing Walgreen's allegation that Dynaserv breached its contractual notification obligation.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded