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DANIEL W. BURT v. DELMARVA SURETY ASSOCIATES, INC.
Contracts — Breach — Indemnity agreement
Appellants, Daniel W. Burt, Cynthia Burt (his wife), D.W. Burt Concrete Construction, Inc., and 1111 Edgewater, LLC (“Burt” generally or sometimes, as apparent in context, Daniel W. Burt as an individual), seek reversal of the grant of summary judgment by the Circuit Court for Baltimore County entered in favor of Appellees, Delmarva Surety Associates, Inc. (“Delmarva”) and Thomas Whipple (“Whipple”), a principal of Delmarva. The underlying litigation was initiated as a claimed breach of an indemnity agreement filed by the United States Surety Company and U.S. Specialty Insurance Company (“Sureties”) against Burt regarding the construction of a Residence Inn hotel in Ocean City. Burt filed a third-party complaint against Appellees. In it, Burt alleged negligent/fraudulent inducement by Appellees to act as the indemnitor on the construction surety bonds for the Residence Inn project. Appellees, reputedly long-time counselors to Burt in similar matters, knew of facts (undisclosed to Burt) suggesting the indemnification was risky and almost guaranteed to fail because of the financial and performance weaknesses of the prime contractor on the project. 1 The circuit court determined that there was no genuine dispute of material fact regarding the third-party complaint and granted summary judgment, as a matter of law, in favor of the Appellees. Burt appealed timely. We shall …
