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N.Y. Gen. Oblig. Law § 5-322.1

Agreements exempting owners and contractors from liability for negligence void and unenforceable; certain cases

Applied in 58 court decisions — leading case 51 Misc. 3d 585 - Board of Managers of the 125 North 10th Condominium v. 125North10, LLC (2016)

Most recently applied in Lemache v. Elk Manhasset LLC (December 2023)

2014-09-22

How often courts cite this section

201420202023120
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

§ 5-322.1. Agreements exempting owners and contractors from liability\nfor negligence void and unenforceable; certain cases. 1. A covenant,\npromise, agreement or understanding in, or in connection with or\ncollateral to a contract or agreement relative to the construction,\nalteration, repair or maintenance of a building, structure,\nappurtenances and appliances including moving, demolition and excavating\nconnected therewith, purporting to indemnify or hold harmless the\npromisee against liability for damage arising out of bodily injury to\npersons or damage to property contributed to, caused by or resulting\nfrom the negligence of the promisee, his agents or employees, or\nindemnitee, whether such negligence be in whole or in part, is against\npublic policy and is void and unenforceable; provided that this section\nshall not affect the validity of any insurance contract, workers'\ncompensation agreement or other agreement issued by an admitted insurer.\nThis subdivision shall not preclude a promisee requiring indemnification\nfor damages arising out of bodily injury to persons or damage to\nproperty caused by or resulting from the negligence of a party other\nthan the promisee, whether or not the promisor is partially negligent.\n 2. A covenant, promise, agreement or understanding in, or in\nconnection with or collateral to a contract or agreement relative to the\nconstruction, alteration, repair or maintenance of a building,\nstructure, appurtenances and appliances including moving, demolition and\nexcavating connected therewith, purporting to condition a\nsubcontractor's or materialman's right to file a claim and/or commence\nan action on a payment bond on exhaustion of another legal remedy is\nagainst public policy and is void and unenforceable; provided that this\nsubdivision shall not affect the validity of any insurance contract,\nworkers' compensation agreement or other agreement issued by an admitted\ninsurer.\n 3. The provisions of this section shall only apply to covenants,\npromises, agreements or understandings in, or in connection with or\ncollateral to a contract or agreement, as enumerated in subdivision one\nhereof, entered into on or after the thirtieth day next succeeding the\ndate on which it shall have become a law.\n

Official source: NYS Open Legislation (New York State Senate). Reproduced from public-domain New York statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.