Carr Allison’s Shareholder Sean W. Martin (Chattanooga, TN) obtained a full dismissal of a subcontractor in a lawsuit arising out of a residential construction project gone bad. Martin’s client was responsible for installing manufactured stone on the exterior of the plaintiff’s lake house in Middle Tennessee. The plaintiffs took no issue with the stone veneer work done by the client. Their beef was with the general contractor. However, to shift its liability, the general contractor asserted a direct claim for common law indemnity against Mr. Martin’s client. After determining that this theory was rendered obsolete by Tennessee’s adoption of modified comparative fault, the general contractor dismissed Mr. Martin’s client from the case.
