Volume 112 — New Hampshire Reports

1. Superior Court Rule 21, authorizing third-party practice, does not create substantive rights in litigants or establish a right of reimbursement, indemnity, or contribution; but the rule expedites the presentation, and in some cases accelerates the accrual, of a right of reimbursement, indemnity, or contribution. 2. Unless there is a substantive basis for the third-party plaintiff's claim, he cannot utilize the procedure of rule 21. 3. Allowance of indemnity between or among joint tort-feasors is forbidden in New Hampshire. 4. Sears' right to indemnity is dependent upon its being found liable to the plaintiffs in the main action, and its right to go forward in the third-party proceeding requires a showing under applicable law that the third-party defendant would be liable to it. 5. If Sears, claiming an implied right to indemnity arising out of its contract with the third-party defendant to clean and wax a Sears' store floors, is found liable for its alleged negligence in keeping its store's floors in a highly waxed and slippery condition, as alleged in count 1 of the plaintiffs in the main action, without discovering and acquiescing in the continuation of that condition, it would be liable as a matter of law to the plaintiffs in the main action solely on its nondelegable<page_number>Page 283</page_number> duty as occupier of the premises, and it would be entitled to indemnity from the third-party defendant as one solely responsible for the creation of the condition; it would not have a right of indemnity against the third-party defendant if it had notice of the dangerous condition of its premises before plaintiff was injured. 6. If Sears is found liable for negligence in allowing water to accumulate and make more dangerous a floor highly waxed by the third-party defendant and already dangerously slippery, as alleged in count 3 by the plaintiffs in the main action, Sears would be a joint tort-feasor and would not be entitled to contribution from the third-party defendant for any loss Sears incurred in the main action.