Supreme Court rules employees can sue oil and gas companies
The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously ruled that oil and natural gas companies can be sued when a worker is killed or injured on the job.
The court declared unconstitutional the portion of a state workers’ compensation law that exempted oil and natural gas well operators and owners from lawsuits. In an 8-0 decision with one recusal, the justices said they “find no valid reason exists for the special treatment of the oil and gas industry.”
The case specifically concerns a well-site accident that killed a trucking company employee in 2014, but it likely will affect other cases, said Luke T. Abel, the attorney who represented the family of the worker who was killed.
“We’re a big oil and gas state. This is going to have implications for oil and gas companies and injured workers,” Abel said. “I think this benefits employees who are injured because it gives them at least a chance to be compensated for injuries suffered through a third party’s fault. It will treat the oil and gas sector like every other company is treated.”
The ruling was announced the day after an explosion at a well site in Pittsburg County
killed five people in what has been deemed the deadliest accident since the start of the U.S. shale boom.
Tuesday’s ruling centers on David Chambers, an employee of Crescentbased RDT Trucking Inc. who died Oct. 6, 2014, after receiving severe burns in an accident at a Crescent well site operated by Fort Smith, Arkbased Stephens Production Co.
An attorney for Stephens production did not respond to phone calls
from The Oklahoman on Tuesday.
Chambers’ daughter Glory Strickland filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Stephens Production and others in Oklahoma County District Court, alleging negligence for failure to properly operate, maintain and inspect the well and for failing to properly warn of dangerous conditions at the well site. The lawsuit seeks at least $300,000 in damages.
Stephens Production filed a motion to dismiss, claiming immunity under state law that provides that “any operator or owner of an oil or gas well ... shall be deemed to be an
intermediate or principle employer” for purposes of extending immunity from civil liability. Strickland argued the law was unconstitutional and violated the constitutional principle of separation of powers.
The district court judge denied the oil company’s motion to dismiss and found the law unconstitutional. Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling agreed.
The Supreme Court did not rule on the merits of the case, but sent it back to district court for a full hearing.
“We’re pleased with the results, and we’re pleased it was unanimous, with one recusal,” Abel said. “We’re hoping to work toward a resolution.”
Besides Chambers, 14 other workers were killed in Oklahoma while working in mining, quarrying and oil and natural gas extraction jobs in 2014, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration reports that from 2003 to 2010, 823 oil and gas extraction workers were killed on the job nationwide — a fatality rate seven times greater than the rate for all U.S. industries.