Exxon Corp. v. Roberts

• Decision Date: 30 December 1986
• Docket Number: No. 9496,9496
• Citation: 724 S.W.2d 863
• Parties: EXXON CORPORATION and Offshore Casing Crews, Inc., Appellants, v. Lynda ROBERTS, et al, Appellees.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 863

724 S.W.2d 863

EXXON CORPORATION and Offshore Casing Crews, Inc., Appellants, v. Lynda ROBERTS, et al, Appellees.

No. 9496.

Court of Appeals of Texas Texarkana.

Dec. 30, 1986.

Rehearing Denied Feb. 18, 1987.

Rene J. Mouledoux, Exxon Company, U.S.A., Houston, for Exxon.

T. John Ward, Sharp, Ward, Price, Hightower & Searcy, Longview, for Offshore.

Paul L. Sadler, Wellborn, Houston, Adkinson, Mann & Sadler, Henderson, for appellees.

CORNELIUS, Chief Justice.

David Roberts was killed in an oil field accident in Upshur County. His widow and daughter sued Exxon, the owner of the well, and Offshore Casing Crews, the casing contractor, alleging that the accident was due to their negligence. The jury found both Exxon and Offshore negligent and apportioned seventy-five percent of the fault to Exxon and the remainder to Offshore.

Exxon cross-claimed against Offshore for indemnity under contractual indemnity and breach of contract theories. These claims were submitted to the trial court along with a claim by Offshore for contribution. The court granted Exxon's claims for breach of contract and indemnity, and denied Offshore's claim for contribution. Exxon appeals the judgment in favor of the Robertses, and Offshore appeals the judgment for Exxon.

EXXON'S APPEAL

Exxon challenges the sufficiency of the evidence and asserts error in the submission of jury issues, the admission of certain evidence, and because of an alleged irreconcilable conflict between two of the special issues. We overrule these points of error, and affirm the judgment in favor of the Robertses against Exxon.

David Roberts was employed by Rainbow Drilling Company. Exxon engaged Rainbow as the drilling contractor to drill a well on an Exxon lease in Upshur County. Exxon engaged Offshore as the casing contractor to install the casing. On May 29, 1983, the Rainbow crew finished drilling a portion of the well and began to circulate mud through the drill pipe to flush the clippings out of the hole. This process clears the hole so that surface casing can be placed in the well. Exxon's representative at the well site was Buddy Fiew. Fiew observed the circulation process and told the Rainbow toolpusher to move the casing tools, which had been placed on the ground near the well platform, up to the rig floor.

Casing tools are large, heavy pieces of equipment used to lift and place casing pipe into the well. They are about three feet by three feet square, and weigh nearly 4,000 pounds. The tools were raised to the rig floor by the boom-line method. That method involves hoisting the tools into the air with a cable lowered from the derrick's boom. A snub line is attached to the tool and is held by workers on the ground in order to control the tool's movement and to keep it away from the rig structure as it is raised. The boom-line method requires the crew on the platform floor to operate the hoist and direct the operation, and the crew on the ground to gradually let out the snub line as the tool is raised. The hoist operator cannot see the ground crew, because he is positioned away from the railing of the rig floor in order to operate the hoist controls. A flagman is therefore placed near the rail so he can relay signals between the ground crew and the hoist operator.

On this occasion the Rainbow crew operated the hoist, and the Offshore crew held the snub line. David Roberts was the flagman. As the tool came over the platform railing, the snub line was released causing the tool to swing out of control and strike Roberts twice in the chest. He later died from his injuries.

One who entrusts work to an independent contractor, but who retains control of some part of the work, may be liable to others for damages caused by his failure to exercise reasonable care in his control of that work. Redinger v. Living, Inc., 689 S.W.2d 415 (Tex.1985); Restatement (Second) of Torts § 414 (1965). The jury found that Exxon exercised control over the lifting procedure and that finding is not challenged on this appeal. The jury further found that Exxon's control was negligent in four specific areas and that each of those acts or omissions was a proximate cause of Roberts' death. Exxon attacks these findings as being supported by no evidence or insufficient evidence.

The first finding of negligence was Exxon's failure to use a cat-line procedure to raise the casing tools rather than a boom-line procedure. The cat-line procedure involves dragging the tools up a ramp onto the platform floor. It avoids the need of hoisting the tools into the air, and thus eliminates any need for a snub line. The thrust of Exxon's argument is that use of the boom-line procedure could not have been negligence or a proximate cause of the accident because it was a standard, safe procedure which could not reasonably be foreseen as a danger.

Negligence is the failure to act as a reasonably prudent person would under the same or similar circumstances, considering the reasonably foreseeable risk or probability of injury to persons situated as the plaintiff. Bennett v. Span Industries, Inc., 628 S.W.2d 470 (Tex.App.--Texarkana 1981, writ ref'd n.r.e.). Proximate cause requires reasonable foreseeability and cause in fact. McClure v. Allied Stores of Texas, Inc., 608 S.W.2d 901 (Tex.1980). An event is reasonably foreseeable if a person of ordinary intelligence should have anticipated dangers that his negligent act created for others. Nixon v. Mr. Property Management, 690 S.W.2d 546 (Tex.1985). Cause in fact embraces the cause which produces an event and without which the event would not have occurred. Nixon v. Mr. Property Management, supra.

Evidence supporting the jury's findings on the boom-line procedure came from testimony by Exxon's representative, Buddy Fiew. Fiew ordered the tools raised to the rig floor. He could have required the cat-line procedure but did not do so, although he was aware of the possible dangers involved in using the boom-line procedure and admitted that the cat-line method was the safer method of putting tools on the platform. Exxon supported its position by evidence that the boom-line procedure is considered routine and standard procedure in the industry and that no problems with it had ever been encountered by either crew. Nonetheless, Fiew conceded that the lifting procedure could have been safely performed by using the cat-line method and that it would have avoided the dangers inherent in the boom-line procedure. This fact, considered along with the difficulty of communication between Offshore's Spanish-speaking crew and Rainbow's English-speaking crew, and the failure to have a safety meeting to explain and coordinate the operation, constitutes sufficient evidence to support the jury's findings of negligence and proximate cause in Exxon's failure to use the cat-line method.

The jury also found that Exxon was negligent in failing to require that Offshore's crew be able to adequately speak and understand English. It is undisputed that Offshore's crew was Spanish speaking, although the foreman of the crew, Jesus Charles, and one other crew member spoke some English. Charles' English was limited, however, as indicated by his deposition testimony which was taken with the use of an English interpreter.

Proper communication between the crews was essential for them to understand and coordinate their actions. It was Exxon's responsibility to coordinate the two crews' actions, but Exxon's representative, Mr. Fiew, did not know if the two crews could communicate and did nothing to ensure that they could. In fact, he admitted that Charles spoke only some English and did not know if the remainder of the Offshore crew spoke any English. In spite of this, he ordered the tools raised to the platform floor knowing the boom-line method required the use of both crews and that a lack of communication between the crews could cause an accident.

The accident occurred because someone let go of the snub line at the wrong time. Jesus Charles testified that he let go of the snub line when the tool moved above the rig floor railing. He thought someone told him to let go of the rope, but did not know exactly what was said. Exxon urges that the failure to have an English-speaking crew could not have been a proximate cause of the accident, because the rig noise level required that all communications be nonverbal. Charles, however, testified that it was a verbal signal which caused him to release the rope. There was evidence that Fiew knew the dangers which could occur between crews that could not communicate, and that improper communication caused the line to be released prematurely. We find the evidence sufficient to support the jury's findings on this issue.

In Special Issues 6 and 7 the jury found that Exxon's failure to hold a safety meeting and their failure to have a rule requiring such a meeting constituted negligence and proximate cause.

There was evidence that Fiew could have called a safety meeting had he wanted to. He had the authority and the responsibility to do so if one was to be called. He knew that such a meeting could have been used to explain the operation and coordinate the actions of the two crews and that a safety meeting could have prevented the accident.

Exxon contends that foreseeability is absent in the safety meeting issue because the Offshore and Rainbow crews had performed the boom-line lift operation on numerous occasions without incident. There is evidence, however, that the members of these particular crews had not worked together in the past and were not familiar with one another.

Concerning the issue involving the safety rule, Fiew stated that such rules are aimed at preventing accidents and deaths and are good rules. He believed a meeting could have prevented the accident. It should go without saying that if safety meetings are necessary to coordinate activities and explain procedures to avoid accidents, and they are not routinely held on a...