Liability in the Oil and Gas Fields: The Gap Between Your Company and Its Employees
Texas courts have continued to evaluate the nature and extent of liability that property owners have for the acts of independent petroleum contractors, points out Marcy Rothman in Kane Russell Coleman Logan’s Energy Law Today blog.
She explains that a new opinion from the Eastland Court of Appeals is highly relevant for owners, operators, and drillers.
The Texas Supreme Court specifically held that the plain language of the Liability for Acts of Independent Contractors statute in the Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code protects only the property owner, not its employees.
Boiling the Eastland court’s decision to its most practical terms, when it comes to claims for negligent hiring, companies are subject to claims that they knew or should have known that the contractors were not competent, Rothman writes.