What is an indemnitor?
How do you legally define who is an indemnitor?
What are the important elements that you must know!
Keep reading as we have gathered exactly the information that you need!
Let’s dig into our legal definition dictionary!
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What is an indemnitor
An indemnitor (also known as a guarantor) is a person or company who acts as the guarantor of another person’s legal obligations or will bear the losses incurred by another.
The term indemnitor originates from the Latin term “indemni” meaning “without loss”.
Essentially, the indemnitor is the person that assures another person that they will not suffer a financial loss or suffer damages of any kind.
For example:
Many contracts will have an indemnification clause.
Under this clause, one party may agree to act as an indemnitor and agree to compensate the other party for any damages, losses or liability resulting from the execution of the contract or as per the scope of the indemnification provision.
There are many instances when a person or company can act as an indemnitor, such as:
- In business contracts
- In mortgages
- Lease contracts
- For bail bonds
- Business surety bonds
- Personal loans
- Insurance contracts
The list can go on.
Later in this article, we’ll look at the most common instances when a person may act as an indemnitor.
Indemnitor definition
How do you define indemnitor?
According to the Dictionary.com, the term indemnitor is defined as:
A person or organization (usually an insurance company) that provides indemnity—protection or security against damage or loss, or compensation for damages or money spent.
In other words, an indemnitor is a person that provides legal or financial protection against possible losses or damages.
In the event a loss or damage does occur, the indemnitor will assume the liability and compensate the indemnitee (the person entitled to the indemnification).
Indemnitor examples
In what cases do we have a person or company assuming the role of an indemnitor?
What are some examples of indemnitors?
Contrats
In contract law, an indemnitor is a contracting party that agrees to cover any damages, losses or liability suffered by another contracting party during the course of the execution of the contract.
The legal obligations of an indemnitor take root in the indemnification provision of the contract where the parties scope the extent of protection provided by the indemnitor (or indemnifying party) to the indemnitee (or indemnified party).
The indemnification clause in contracts or an indemnification agreement allocates financial and legal responsibility between the parties contractually.
As a result, it’s important to understand the extent of the financial and legal obligations being assumed by accepting to indemnify another.
Surety bond
In commercial dealings and in many business transactions, a company may need to get a surety bond in order to ship goods or get a business license.
In that case, the company will enter into a surety bond agreement with a bonding company to get the necessary surety required to complete the intended business transaction.
In such commercial transactions, you have the principal (company required to give surety), the beneficiary (typically the client or government agency) and the underwriter (surety bond company).
The bonding company will issue the necessary amount of bond required to provide the indemnification needed by the beneficiary.
Insurance
Insurance contracts are designed in such a way that the insurance provider agrees to protect a person, company or organization against specific risk as defined under the insurance policy.
In this context, the insurance company is the “indemnitor” whereas the policyholder or beneficiary is the “indemnitee”.
If an event covered by the insurance policy were to occur resulting in financial losses or damages to the policyholder, the insurance company will provide indemnity to the indemnitee (without trying to play on words here!!).
Bail bond
In criminal law, an indemnitor (also known as the cosigner) is a person or company that offers to provide a person detained and accused of a crime the necessary guarantees to have the person released on bail.
The companies that offer such services are generally referred to as bail bond companies, bail bond agents or underwriters.
The person cosigning a signature bond as the indemnitor (like a family member, friend or colleague at work) will take the financial responsibility of having to pay the bail bond agent or the authorities in the event the defendant fails to respect the necessary bail conditions.
The person signing as the indemnitor for a bail bond becomes the person essentially legally and financially responsible for ensuring that the accused party appears to court as scheduled and respects the bail conditions.
Takeaways
So what does indemnitor mean?
Let’s look at a summary of our findings.
Indemnitor:
Related legal terms and concepts
Indemnitee
Surety bond indemnity
Guarantor
Indemnifying party
Indemnified party
Legal contract
Indemnity agreement
Bonding company
Trust indenture
Contractual liability
Hold harmless clause
Bail agreement
Collateral security
Repay
Compensate
Exculpatory clause
