Discussion Groups / English Usage / July 2007

Must be a blunder ...if there is any money involved...

Put it in another, more familiar, context to make it simpler.  Your
automobile insurance protects you *from* loss caused by damage to your
vehicle.  That's synonymous with saying that your insurance protects
you *against* loss, so "from" and "against" are synonyms in this
usage.  

The settlement you receive is in compensation *for* your loss.  

The "indemnification" in your lead sentence is, in this case,
synonymous with "protects".  The idemnification may be in the form of
insurance, a bond, or a statement of assumption of liability.

Here are some definitions from
http://dictionary.law.com/default2.asp?

save harmless
v. 1) also called hold harmless, to indemnify (protect) another from harm or
cost. 2) to agree to guarantee that any debt, lawsuit or claim which may
arise as a result of a contract or contract performance will be paid or
taken care of by the party making the guarantee. Example: the seller of a
business agrees to "save harmless" the buyer from any unknown debts of the
business.
See also: hold harmless indemnify

hold harmless
n. a promise to pay any costs or claims which may result from an agreement.
Quite often this is part of a settlement agreement, in which one party is
concerned that there might be unknown lawsuits or claims stemming from the
situation, so the other party agrees to cover them.

indemnify
v. to guarantee against any loss which another might suffer. Example: two
parties settle a dispute over a contract, and one of them may agree to pay
any claims which may arise from the contract, holding the other harmless.
See also: hold harmless

As can be seen, the term "indemnify ... from" is used in legal language.
Whether money is involved would depend on the circumstances.  Certainly,
"from all liabilities" covers all liabilities, financial or otherwise.

Maybe Bob L. can be more authoritative than that.