Attorneys obtained a reversal of a jury verdict and remand for a new trial in a contractual indemnity case

Attorneys obtained a reversal of a jury verdict and remand for a new trial in a contractual indemnity case.  The case was brought by our client, a construction project manager, against a subcontractor to recover settlement funds that our client paid to settle a personal injury suit brought by the subcontractor's employee.  The state Superior Court panel unanimously overturned the jury's verdict and awarded a new trial to our client on the basis that the defendant was improperly permitted by the trial court, over repeated objection, to introduce evidence of another incident without demonstrating that the other accident was sufficiently similar.  In so ruling, the Superior court reaffirmed the long-standing principle that evidence of other incidents in admissible only where the proponent of the evidence demonstrates that the time, location, and other particulars of the incident are "sufficiently similar" to the incident in question.