The Indiana Solicitor General Wednesday told the State Supreme Court that if the State Fair is held liable for victim settlement payouts of a private company involved in the 2011 stage collapse, the state could be liable for untold amounts of money.
Indiana’s tort claims act bars the state from what’s called indemnifying a private contractor; that is, taking responsibility for accidents that occur with the contractor or their equipment. But Mid-America Sound says that’s precisely what the State Fair Commission did; invoices Mid-America submitted each year to the fair had indemnification language on the back.
But Solicitor General Thomas Fisher says those invoices are not a contract and can’t supersede Indiana law – after all, he says, the Attorney General’s office reviews all state contracts, but can’t possibly review every invoice:
“Is every invoice going to have to be scrutinized for this language on the theory that because it came through one time, potentially we could be on the hook for limitless liability?” he asks.
Furthermore, the state contends the Fair Commission didn’t know the language was there. But Mid-America attorney Robert MacGill says the state must have known.
That belief stems from an incident in 2002, when Mid-America tried to shut down a concert because of weather concerns. Fair officials told the company it had no authority to stop the show – and MacGill says the indemnification language was put in place the next year:
“There wasn’t going to be any equipment at the Indiana State Fair unless the state agreed to indemnify," he says. "It wasn’t going to happen.”
The Supreme Court could issue a definitive ruling on the case or send it back to the trial court level for further proceedings.