## Facts

- Bennett P. Trapani was the general contractor building a two-story single-family house in Mount Prospect, Illinois.
- Trapani subcontracted painting work to John Hillesheim; Edward Wrobel worked for Hillesheim as a painter.
- Wrobel painted a second-story window from a ladder placed outside the house and fell, suffering injuries.
- Wrobel alleged Trapani’s negligence caused the injuries and later alleged Trapani’s carpenter, Leo Townsend, lowered a window sash, causing Wrobel to fall.
- Wrobel also alleged Trapani willfully violated the Illinois Structural Work Act.
- Trapani filed a third-party complaint against Hillesheim seeking indemnity on two theories: (1) Trapani was only passively at fault and Hillesheim was actively at fault; and (2) Hillesheim breached an implied obligation to perform the subcontract in a careful, workmanlike manner.
- Trapani settled Wrobel’s claim for $45,000; Wrobel’s action was dismissed, and Trapani pursued indemnity from Hillesheim for the settlement amount.

## Issues

1. Whether Trapani could obtain common-law indemnity from Hillesheim under an active–passive theory when evidence indicated Trapani’s own employee performed a proximate causative act leading to Wrobel’s fall.
2. Whether the subcontract created an implied contractual obligation requiring Hillesheim to indemnify Trapani for the Structural Work Act-based settlement.

## Decision

- The Illinois Appellate Court affirmed the directed verdict for Hillesheim on Trapani’s third-party complaint.
- The court held Trapani was not entitled to active–passive indemnity because Trapani, through its own employee, was shown to be actively at fault rather than merely passively or technically liable.
- The court held the evidence did not support implied contractual indemnity; the subcontract’s implied duty of workmanlike performance did not establish an implied promise to reimburse Trapani for Trapani’s statutory or tort liability on these facts.
- The settlement was not treated as an independent bar; the failure of the indemnity theories and the evidence of Trapani’s active fault were dispositive.

## Legal Principles

- Common-law active–passive indemnity is unavailable where the indemnitee’s liability arises from its own active negligence or the active negligence of its employees.
- A subcontractor’s implied duty to perform work carefully and in a workmanlike manner does not, without clear intent or a special relationship, imply a duty to indemnify the general contractor for the general contractor’s own negligence or statutory liability.
- In Structural Work Act cases, a general contractor cannot shift loss to a subcontractor through indemnity where the contractor’s own agents’ conduct is a proximate cause of the injury.

## Conclusion

The court upheld judgment for the subcontractor because the general contractor’s own employee’s conduct supplied active fault defeating common-law indemnity, and the subcontract did not support an implied agreement requiring the subcontractor to indemnify the contractor for the contractor’s settlement under the Structural Work Act.


Wrobel v. Trapani, 264 N.E.2d 240 (Ill. App. Ct. 1970)