On May 16, 2018, Governor Doug Ducey signed Senate Bill 1271,
which created a “construction liability apportionment study
committee” (the “Committee”) to “research
and make recommendations for the apportionment of liability in the
construction industry.”
Except for the construction of public buildings or improvements,
there currently is no legal restriction on the way parties to
construction contracts in Arizona can structure the apportionment
of liability via indemnity provisions. As it was originally
introduced, Senate Bill 1271 would have changed that, with
language prohibiting indemnity provisions in construction,
architecture, and engineering contracts that require one contractor
to pay for another contractor’s negligence. The Bill would
have created a system of comparative fault, similar to
Arizona’s version of the Uniform Contribution Among
Tortfeasor’s Act (
A.R.S. §§ 12-2501, et seq.), in which each party
involved in the construction of a project bears
