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Gainsco Insurance Co. v. Amoco Production Co.8/19/2002
oposed working under Andrews' Well and Lease Service Contract as a "subcontractor" to Andrews. . . . Kobbe would pay Andrews 5% of the gross it received from such work . . .. The work Kobbe would perform would not compete with Andrews since servicing wells was work Andrews did not have the equipment, knowledge or manpower to perform.
The Elk Basin Oil Field was the subject of secondary recovery operations involving the injection of fluids into the ground in order to produce additional oil from the geological formations. The oil produced was co-mingled with the fluids injected in settling ponds. Amoco owned a facility [where] there existed tanks into which oil skimmed from these ponds was pumped. One such tank was referred to as a "bad oil tank" because it contained deadly H2S gas. In this particular field, the poisonous gas, H2S, is produced with the oil and must be handled with great care. Kobbe proposed to conduct this and other well servicing work under Andrews['] contract with Amoco. Andrews had never performed servicing work in connection with oil tanks. Andrews had neither the knowledge nor the equipment to perform such work.
Initially, the agreement between Kobbe Construction and Amoco proceeded smoothly. Andrews made considerably more money from his percentage of Kobbe's work than he did with his own trucking operations. Then, in the Fall of 1991, an employee of Kobbe Construction, Brent Abraham, operating a Kobbe Construction truck containing oil which had been skimmed from a pond, was killed when he was overcome by H2S gas while delivering oil to a bad oil tank . . ..
The facts indicated that Mr. Abraham decided to check a screen leading to the tank before dumping the oil in his truck and opened a "pod" to check the screen while the valve to the tank was in an open position and without bleeding pressure from the screen pod. As a result poisonous gas spewed onto his clothing and near his breathing zone resulting in his death.
Gainsco then contended in its motion that the indemnity provision of the Contract between Amoco and Andrews that purported to indemnify Amoco for its own negligence violated the anti-indemnity statute because the work being performed under the contract clearly fit the statute's definition of "rendering services in or in connection with any well . . .."
[ ] In its brief supporting its own motion for summary judgment, Amoco argued that the Contract's indemnity provision did not violate Wyo. Stat. Ann. ยง 30-1-131 because, just as the work described in Reliance Ins. Co., 713 P.2d at 768, the work being performed by Abraham at the time of his death did not "involve" a well, but occurred at an above-ground separation facility far removed from any well. Amoco then relied on Brittain v. Booth, 601 P.2d 532, 535 (Wyo. 1979), for the proposition that an agreement to indemnify a party for his own negligence may be enforced if it is not otherwise contrary to public policy.
[ ] The district court's decision letter makes no mention of the anti-indemnity statute. Gainsco now argues to this Court that the district court "absolutely ignored these arguments and failed to address them . . .." We see nothing in the record to contradict this assertion. Were this the only issue on appeal, and were there questions of fact remaining in regard to it, we would be compelled to reverse the summary judgment and remand this case for trial. As it is, however, there is no genuine issue of material fact pertaining to this question. Although, by its title, the Contract is a "well and lease service" agreement, the work performed under the contract was not limited to work "closely related to well drilling." See Reliance Ins. Co., 713 P.2d at 770.
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Wyoming Personal Injury Attorneys
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