Murray v. Trunkline Gas Co.

• Decision Date: 09 May 1989
• Docket Number: No. 88-CA-2014,88-CA-2014
• Citation: 544 So.2d 28
• Parties: Lascelles MURRAY v. TRUNKLINE GAS COMPANY, First Horizon Insurance Company, Performance Marine, Inc., the ABC Insurance Company, and John Doe.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US

Page 28

544 So.2d 28

Lascelles MURRAY v. TRUNKLINE GAS COMPANY, First Horizon Insurance Company,

Performance Marine, Inc., the ABC Insurance

Company, and John Doe.

No. 88-CA-2014.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.

May 9, 1989.

Leon A. Aucoin, Frank M. Buck, Jr., Metairie, for plaintiff/appellant.

S. Gene Fendler, R. Keith Jarrett, New Orleans, for defendants/appellees.

Before GARRISON, ARMSTRONG and BECKER, JJ.

BECKER, Judge.

Cross-claim defendant-appellant, First Horizon Insurance Company, appeals the granting of a summary judgment in favor of defendant-appellee, Trunkline Gas Company. The trial court, in granting the summary judgment, determined that the Louisiana Oilfield Anti-Indemnity Act was not applicable to the contract between Trunkline Gas Company and First Horizon's insured, Cooper Brothers Welding Services, Inc., therefore making Trunkline an additional insured under the policy issued by First Horizon to Cooper Brothers.

The plaintiff, Lascelles Murray, filed a tort action to recover damages for injuries sustained on December 15, 1985 while in the employ of Cooper Brothers Welding Services, Inc. Plaintiff was working aboard a fixed platform owned and operated by Trunkline Gas Company. Trunkline cross-claimed against plaintiff's employer, Cooper, and Cooper's insurer, First Horizon, alleging that Cooper had an obligation to indemnify and defend Trunkline under its contract. Trunkline further alleged that the contract required Cooper to name Trunkline as an additional insured under the policy Cooper had with First Horizon.

First Horizon and Cooper filed a motion for summary judgment arguing that the Oilfield Anti-Indemnity Act (LSA-R.S. 9:2780) nullified the defense and the indemnity provisions of the contract. Appellants further argued that the statute also nullified the provision in the contract which allegedly required Cooper to name Trunkline as an additional insured. The trial court granted the motion for summary judgment as to Cooper but denied the motion as to First Horizon concluding that First Horizon, as Cooper's insurer, could not benefit from the statute. That judgment was signed on June 26, 1987.

First Horizon then filed an application for supervisory writs to this Court seeking relief from the denial of its motion for summary judgment. This Court granted appellant's writ application on November 24, 1987. In its response to First Horizon's application for writs, Trunkline, for the first time, argued that its action on the platform were not covered by the Anti-Indemnity Act. This Court declined to address this argument as Trunkline failed to raise this issue at the trial court level.

Subsequently, the trial court rendered a judgment on December 8, 1987 wherein it considered all issues pertaining to Cooper as being final, and granted First Horizon's motion for summary judgment dismissing Trunkline's claims against it.

Trunkline filed a motion for a new trial on December 15, 1987 requesting the trial court to vacate its previous judgments in favor of Cooper and First Horizon to consider newly discovered evidence that its activities aboard the platform in question were not covered by the Oilfield Anti-Indemnity Act. The trial court granted Trunkline's motion for a new trial and vacated the judgments previously rendered in favor of Cooper and First Horizon.

On January 15, 1988, First Horizon and Cooper filed an application for supervisory writs with this Court seeking review of the trial court's granting of Trunkline's motion for a new trial. The Court granted the writ application, and reversed in part and affirmed in part. This Court held that the judgment in favor of Cooper was final in these proceedings and reversed the trial court's order to vacate. However, this Court did affirm the part of the district court's order granting Trunkline a new trial as to Trunkline's claims against First Horizon, 524 So.2d 112.

Trunkline then filed a motion for summary judgment contending that it was entitled to judgment in its favor as a matter of law because its activities aboard the platform were not within the scope of the Oilfield Anti-Indemnity statute, therefore making the Act inapplicable to the contract between it and Cooper. First Horizon filed an opposition to Trunkline's motion as well as its own motion for summary judgment, arguing that Trunkline's activities aboard the platform were within the scope of the Act.

On June 3, 1988, the trial court heard both motions. In its judgment, rendered on June 6, 1988, the trial court denied First Horizon's motion and granted Trunkline's motion for summary judgment. The trial court held that the contract between Trunkline and Cooper which required Cooper to obtain an insurance policy that named Trunkline as an additional insured was outside the scope of the Louisiana Oilfield Anti-Indemnity Act as Trunkline was a gas transportation company and was not involved in the production and/or exploration of minerals.

First Horizon now appeals the judgment of the trial court granting Trunkline's motion for summary judgment, arguing that the trial court erred in finding that contract between Cooper and Trunkline outside of the scope of the Louisiana Oilfield Anti-Indemnity Act, LSA-R.S. 9:2780. First Horizon contends that Trunkline's activities aboard the platform in question are within the scope for coverage provided in the statute.

LSA-R.S. 9:2780 (also known as the Oilfield Anti-Indemnity Act) provides, in pertinent part,

"B. Any provision contained in, collateral to, or affecting an agreement pertaining to a well for oil, gas, or water, or drilling for minerals which occur in a solid, liquid, gaseous, or other state, is void and unenforceable to the extent that it purports to or does provide for defense or indemnity, or either, to the...