Adams v. Atkinson, et al., [Ms. SC-2024-0528, May 16, 2025] ___ So. 3d ___ (Ala. 2025). The Court (Mitchell, J.; Wise and McCool, JJ., concur; Stewart, C.J., and Sellers, J., concur in the result) reverses the Jefferson Circuit Court’s order dismissing Joy Goodwin Adams’s claim pursuant to a hold harmless provision in a 2013 agreement seeking reimbursement of attorneys’ fees she had paid to a third party. The circuit court accepted the Defendants’ argument that the “agreement’s ‘hold … harmless’ language does not mean to ‘indemnify.’” Ms. *7. After discussing prior case law discussing agreements employing the doublet “indemnify and hold harmless,” the Court reverses and concludes because “‘hold … harmless’ as used in the 2013 agreement is synonymous with ‘indemnify,’ the circuit court erred in dismissing Joy’s suit with prejudice.” Ms. *20.
