Dade County School Board v. Radio Station WQBA

Radio Station WQBA (WQBA) (defendant) ran Miami’s annual Three Kings Day Parade as a promotional event. Dade County School Board (the Board) (plaintiff) purchased an advertising package from WQBA. Under the package, WQBA would select a high-school marching band to carry the Board’s banner in the parade. The Board’s participation agreement with WQBA contained an indemnification clause stating that the Board would indemnify WQBA against any claim resulting from “our participation and actions” during the parade. It was not specified whether the “our” in the indemnification clause applied to the Board or to both the Board and the marching band selected to carry the Board’s banner. During the parade, the marching band carrying the Board’s banner used flaming batons, which ultimately caused severe burn injuries to parade spectators. The injured spectators sued the Board and WQBA for negligence. WQBA filed a crossclaim against the Board for common-law immunity and contractual immunity, arguing that the Board was entirely at fault for the spectator’s injuries. Based on the indemnification clause, the trial court granted WQBA summary judgment on its contractual indemnity claim. The common-law indemnity claim proceeded to trial. After trial, despite finding there was no special relationship between the Board and WQBA, the trial court ruled in WQBA’s favor on the common-law indemnity claim, holding that the Board and the marching band were at fault for the spectator’s injuries, not WQBA. The Board appealed. The appellate court held that WQBA was not entitled to common-law indemnification because it lacked a special relationship with the Board. Regardless, the appellate court held that WQBA was still entitled to relief on other grounds unrelated to indemnification. The Board appealed.