§ 33.017.Preservation of Existing Rights of Indemnity

A saving provision, and it resolves the conflict decisively rather than leaving it to interpretation.

Nothing in the chapter affects any rights of indemnity granted by any statute, by contract, or by common law. And to the extent of any conflict, those rights of indemnification prevail over the provisions of this chapter.

Indemnity and contribution are different things, and the section keeps them apart. Contribution divides a shared loss among those responsible for it. Indemnity shifts the entire loss to another party — under a contract, or under a statute such as the products liability seller's indemnity in Chapter 82.

Without this provision, the several-liability rule could have been read to undercut indemnity: a defendant liable only for its own percentage might be said to have no loss to shift. The section forecloses that reading. A party with an indemnity right keeps it, and it operates on top of whatever the apportionment produces.

The practical result is that indemnity clauses in construction, supply, and services contracts continue to work as written, and the chapter's allocation among defendants does not disturb them.