ELR Citation: 41 ELR 20310
No(s). 11-1185 (7th Cir. Sep 27, 2011)

The Seventh Circuit held that a landowner who sold a large parcel of floodplain property to a conservation group may not ask a local drainage district to indemnify him for damages he incurred in an underlying breach of warranty suit stemming from petroleum contamination on the property. The landowner expressly warranted in the sales contract that there was no petroleum contamination on the land, but petroleum was later discovered. The group filed suit against the landowner, and he was found liable for breach of warranty. The landowner then filed suit against the local drainage district because, he argued, the drainage district negligently maintained a fuel-powered excess water pump on the site. But a "blameless" contract breaker cannot invoke noncontractual indemnity to shift the risk that he assumed in the contract. The landowner could have protected himself against the district's negligence by a subrogation clause in its contract with the conservation group, but he failed to do so.