Common-law indemnification involves an attempt to shift the entire loss from one who is compelled to pay for a loss, without regard to his own fault, to another person who should more properly bear responsibility for that loss. The key element of a common-law cause of action for indemnification is not a duty running from the indemnitor to the injured party, but, rather, is a separate duty owed to the indemnitee by the indemnitor. The predicate of common-law indemnity is vicarious liability without actual fault on the part of the proposed indemnitee.
In order to sustain a third-party cause of action for contribution, a third-party plaintiff is required to show that the third-party defendant owed it a duty of reasonable care independent of its contractual obligations, if any, or that a duty was owed to the plaintiffs as injured parties and that a breach of that duty contributed to the alleged injuries. Under the latter theory of contribution, all that is required is that two people be held liable for the same injury.
25-86 41st St., LLC v. Chong, NY Slip Op 00938 (2d Dep't February 19, 2025)
