Four and a half years after an oil-field worker was hurt on a rig near El Reno and filed suit, his lawsuit has led to a State Supreme Court ruling that declared part of Oklahoma’s workers’ compensation law to be unconstitutional.
In an 8-0 decision, the high court said injured workers can sue well operators. The ruling also resulted in the court determining that part of the workers’ compensation law that exempted oil and natural gas well operators and owners from such lawsuits to be “an unconstitutional special law.”
The justices said that portion of the law “shall be severed from the remainder” of the statute.
The ruling came out of a lawsuit filed by Frank Benedetti who was hurt in December 2013 while working for Schlumberger Technology Corp. He slipped on an ice-covered platform andfell 37 feet. He was badly injured and sued well operator Cimarex Energy Co. and the rig operator Cactus Drilling Co. The suit argued the companies were responsible for the icy conditions by spraying steam on pipes in the below-freezing weather.
“We responded saying the statute was unconstitutional because it’s a special law that gives preferential treatment to oil rig operators,” attorney Jacob Biby told The Oklahoman.
“There’s a big difference between what a person injured on a rig can receive in workers’ comp verses the damages that can be covered in a civil court setting. If a worker is limited to comp, the employees on rigs could have injuries and not be made whole.”
“This ruling protects oil rig workers, and hopefully it also will make the rigs and the industry as a whole safer,” he said.
The court made a similar ruling in January but it applied to a different law that also exempted workers from suing oilfield firms outside of workers’ compensation court.