Cumberland Valley Contractors, Inc. v. Bell County Coal Corp.

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• finding that the wording of the release was “unmistakable” and that “ ‘the hazard experienced was clearly within the contemplation of the provision.’ ”
• “Recognizing the importance of freedom to contract, the courts of this Commonwealth have traditionally enforced exculpatory provisions unless such enforcement violates public policy.”
• finding disparity in earlier case partly because one party was “required to sign the release at issue” before he could do work for the other
• noting most exculpatory clauses are enforced in arm’s-length transactions between sophisticated parties
• “Furthermore, no significant disparity in bargaining power existed between the contracting parties in the instant case, unlike most cases in which exculpatory clauses were deemed invalid due to safety violations or other public policy concerns.”
• enforcing “arm’s-length transaction between sophisticated parties with equal bargaining power”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).