Indiana Supreme Court To Hear State Fair Stage Collapse Suit

INDIANAPOLIS -- Mid-America Sound, one of the private companies involved in the Indiana State Fair stage collapse, says the Indiana State Fair Commission should cover the company’s payments to victims of the 2011 tragedy.  

The company and the state took their arguments to the State Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Mid-America, in order to get paid for providing equipment and a temporary stage roof to the State Fair every year, would submit an invoice after the fair ended.  From 2003 to 2011, that invoice had language on the back saying Mid-America was indemnified, or exempt, from any liability. 

The state contends that Indiana law prevents it from indemnifying a private contractor, and that the Fair Commission didn’t know the language was there. 

But Mid-America attorney Robert MacGill says the state must have known.  It stems from an incident in 2002, when Mid-America tried to shut down a concert because of weather concerns.  Fair officials told the company it had no authority to stop the show – and MacGill says the indemnification language was put in place the next year.

“There wasn’t going to be any equipment at the Indiana State Fair unless the state agreed to indemnify," MacGill said. "It wasn’t going to happen.”

The Supreme Court could issue a definitive ruling on the case or send it back to the trial court level for further proceedings.