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Virginia’s anti-indemnity statute states, in relevant part: Any provision contained in any contract relating to the construction, alteration, repair or maintenance of a building … by which the contractor performing such work purports to indemnify or hold harmless another party to the contract against liability for damage … caused by or resulting solely from the negligence of such other party … is against public policy and is void and unenforceable.
Inclusion of the word “solely” in Section 11-4.1 leads most readers to conclude that it was drafted to fall into the first camp (bringing Virginia within those states barring indemnification for an indemnitee’s negligence only when the indemnitee is solely negligent). But therein lies the trap. Presumably unintentionally, the drafters of Section 11-4.1’s 1991 amendment structured the operative language in a manner similar to, but slightly different from, the ant