Jerry v. Shell Oil Co.

427 F. Supp. 114, 1977 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17894
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Louisiana
DecidedJanuary 14, 1977
DocketCiv. A. No. 750802
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 427 F. Supp. 114 (Jerry v. Shell Oil Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jerry v. Shell Oil Co., 427 F. Supp. 114, 1977 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17894 (W.D. La. 1977).

Opinion

NAUM AN S. SCOTT, Chief Judge:

RULING

The plaintiffs, as surviving parents of their deceased son, Floyd Jerry, brought this tort action against Shell Oil Company and its insurer Travelers Insurance Company as a result of the accident which occurred in Shell’s White Castle Oil Field located in Iberville Parish, Louisiana. In that accident Floyd Jerry was killed when his car drove off a bridge on a road leading out of the field. Defendants have moved for summary judgment on the grounds that plaintiffs’ sole and exclusive remedy against them is recovery under Louisiana’s Workmen’s Compensation statute, and not in this court.

The material facts in this case are not in dispute'. Prior to February 6,1975 Shell Oil was owner of an oil, gas and mineral lease in Iberville Parish, Louisiana. A number of producing wells had been drilled and this lease area was known as the White Castle Oil Field. One of the wells, No. 223, finally lost production and Shell had hired Pernie Bailey Drilling Company (Pernie Bailey), a drilling operator, to re-enter the well in search of oil at a lower level.

Pernie Bailey had hired Floyd Jerry as a member of the drilling crew on Rig No. 223. On February 6, 1975 Jerry arrived to work for Pernie Bailey at approximately 9:00 o’clock A.M. This was Jerry’s first day at work and he had been given directions on how to find his way into the oil field and to well No. 223.

The only roads to the well site from the public highways were private roads maintained by Shell Oil Company. These roads were not used as public thoroughfares, and to warn the public that they were entering a private oil field, Shell had placed orange signs at the intersection of its roads and the public highways which read “Shell Oil Company, Private Road, Travel At'Own Risk”. Two roads give access to the public highway. One road comes from the south and a shorter one from the north which was used more often.

Jerry’s shift finished at approximately 7:00 o’clock P.M. on February 6, 1976, and the crew members departed using the shorter northerly route which crossed Bayou Tigre within the oil field. Jerry was not seen until the next morning when he was found dead in his partially submerged automobile in Bayou Tigre on the south side of the bridge about three-tenths of a mile from the well site.

Shell maintained the two lane road which curved to the right as it approached the bridge. The bridge was about twelve feet wide and could accommodate only one car at a time. The bridge had no side railing, guards, posts or other structures above the level of the roadway.

The approaches to the bridge from the direction in which the decedent was travel[116]*116ing contained no sign or other markings or warnings to indicate its narrowness, its one-way capacity, or the right-hand curve into the bridge. The approaches to the crossing on both ends were bordered by trees, shrubs and vegetation and the bridge was not lighted. Shell Oil had built this bridge for use within its oil field and it was not meant to be nor was it used by members of the public who had no business in the White Castle Field.

As a result of the accident the plaintiffs, as surviving parents, brought this suit in tort against Shell Oil and its insurer for damages suffered as a result of the wrongful death of their son, Floyd Jerry.

Defendants allege that the sole and exclusive remedy Jerry’s parents have against Shell as Jerry’s statutory employer is under Louisiana Workmen’s Compensation statute, L.S.A. 23:1031-1032; and that Shell is therefore immune from this tort suit.

It is well established that if an employee can be fit into the Act then he is excluded from any tort action. In Fabre v. Travelers Ins. Co., 286 So.2d 459 (La.App. 1st Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 288 So.2d 646 (La.1974), the court cited with approval this language used by the trial court:

“The liberal construction of the Workmen’s Compensation Act required to accomplish its humane purpose by including all workmen reasonably afforded its protection must equally be applied when an injured person seeks exclusion from the Act in order to seek damages in tort. “In applying this principle, every reasonable manner of including Mr. Fabre under the Act must be explored, and if any be found he will be held to that exclusive remedy.” (Citations omitted).

Both Shell and plaintiff agree that Shell was a statutory employer of Jerry, as a “principal”, under L.S.A. 23:1061. By virtue of L.S.A. 23:1061-1062, Jerry could collect workmen’s compensation benefits from either Pernie Bailey or Shell. The Fifth Circuit has made it clear that a “principal”, under L.S.A. 23:1061, being liable to an injured statutory employee for workmen’s compensation benefits, is therefore “immune from tort suits brought by such an employee.” Liles v. Riblet Products of Louisiana, 509 F.2d 804 (5th Cir. 1975).

To come within Louisiana’s Workmen’s Compensation statute the injury must be one which arises out of and in the course of employment. The statute, L.S.A. 23:1031, states,

“If an employee not otherwise eliminated from the benefits of this Chapter, receives personal injury by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment, his employer shall pay compensation . .

The injury in this case took place after Jerry left the drilling area where Pernie Bailey was operating Rig No. 223 when the plaintiff’s shift was over at 7:00 o’clock P.M.1 Workmen’s Compensation law has developed the threshold or proximity doctrine to include injuries that do riot occur at the situs of employment. This general rule of the threshold doctrine comes into play when:

“ . . . the injury takes place before or after working hours outside of, but within close proximity to, the premises of the master and results from a hazard to which the employee, by reason of his employment, when considered in connection with the situation of his employer’s premises, is subjected to a greater risk than the public in general. For this exception to be invoked, the means of customary ingress and egress to and from the master’s premises must be such as to compel the employee to submit, by reason of his employment, to greater hazards than the public in general, although such risks may exist, in some measure, with respect to the general public. Moreover, it has been held in these cases that a continuance of the course of employment is extended in allowing the employee a reasonable time, before or after working hours, to enter or leave the premises, or hazards adjacent thereto, and, if injury [117]*117occurs under these circumstances, liability-attaches to the employer for compensation. The Supreme Court of the United States has recognized this precept in the cases of Cudahy Packing Co. v. Parramore, 263 U.S. 418, 44 S.Ct. 153, 68 L.Ed. 366, 30 A.L.R. 532, and Bountiful Brick Co. v. Giles, 276 U.S. 154, 48 S.Ct. 221, 72 L.Ed. 507, 66 A.L.R. 1402.” Walker v. Lykes Brothers-Ripley S. S. Co., Inc., 166 So. 624, 626 (Orl.La.App.1936).

Thus the requirements of the threshold doctrine was twofold.

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Related

Dupre v. Exxon Pipeline Co.
638 So. 2d 1118 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1994)
Jerry v. Shell Oil Co
586 F.2d 840 (Fifth Circuit, 1978)

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Bluebook (online)
427 F. Supp. 114, 1977 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17894, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jerry-v-shell-oil-co-lawd-1977.