Martinez v. Angel Exploration, LLC

798 F.3d 968, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 13613, 2015 WL 4620485
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedAugust 4, 2015
DocketNo. 14-6086
StatusPublished
Cited by43 cases

This text of 798 F.3d 968 (Martinez v. Angel Exploration, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Martinez v. Angel Exploration, LLC, 798 F.3d 968, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 13613, 2015 WL 4620485 (10th Cir. 2015).

Opinion

TYMKOVICH, Circuit Judge.

Jesus Martinez was working on a pump jack — the machinery that extracts oil or gas from a producing underground well site — when the sleeve of his sweatshirt became caught. As a result, Martinez’s hand was pulled into the moving belts and his right thumb severed. The pump jack that injured Martinez, owned by Angel Exploration, was not protected by safety guarding, something Martinez' contends was required at the time by federal regulations and industry standards. He alleges Angel was negligent in its failure to maintain its premises in a reasonably safe condition and, alternatively, that Angel intentionally created a condition certain to cause harm.

■ On Angel’s motion, the district court granted summary judgment on the premises liability claim because, under Oklahoma law, landowners owe no duty as to open and obvious dangers and the unguarded pump jack was such a danger. The court also concluded that Martinez’s intentional tort claim failed because no evidence in the record supported an inference that Angel acted with the knowledge that Martinez’s injury was substantially certain .to occur.

Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm summary judgment on the intentional tort claim, but vacate and remand on the premises liability claim. [972]*972While this case was pending on appeal, the Oklahoma Supreme Court recognized an exception to the open and obvious danger doctrine relied on by the district court. A determination that a condition is open and obvious may no longer be an absolute bar to liability if the landowner should have reasonably foreseen the injury to the plaintiff. See Wood v. Mercedes-Benz, 336 P.3d 457 (Okla.2014). Although we have no doubt the district court’s judgment was correct at the time it was entered, we must remand for further proceedings in light of this opinion.

I. Background

Angel owns and operates a number of wells in Oklahoma. The company outsources the day-to-day management and servicing of its wells to Smith Contract Pumping (SCP). SCP’s employees, called “pumpers,” check on the wells routinely. Pumpers make sure the engines are running, monitor output, and when necessary, tighten loose belts on the pump jack. But any needed repairs beyond SCP’s responsibilities are handled by a second company, Natural Gas Specialists (NGS).

Martinez had been working as a pumper for SCP for three months when he arrived at one of Angel’s wells — “Woodbury 2-2” — and found the engine was not running. Before that day, Martinez had been to Woodbury 2-2 between ten and twenty times, and on those occasions he had noticed that the pump jack was not covered by safety guards. He knew this because some of the other wells on his route had guarding. The process of restarting a well requires pumpers to be in close proximity to the belts, and in this case, to the unguarded belts. On the day of the accident, Martinez successfully restarted Woodbury 2-2’s engine and tightened the belts, which he had noticed were slipping. While he was waiting to be sure everything stayed in working order, he dropped a crescent wrench. As he bent down to get it, the sweatshirt he was wearing became caught in the belt and his thumb was severed. The thumb was later partially amputated.

Although Martinez received workers’ compensation from SCP, he also sued Angel alleging that the lack of guarding was an unreasonably dangerous condition and that Angel was negligent in its failure to make a reasonable inspection of its property, to warn or take other precautions to protect Martinez, and to take action to reduce the risk posed by the dangerous condition.1 During discovery, the owner of SCP testified that Angel relied on SCP to be its eyes and ears and report any needed repairs or adjustments to its wells. He also said that a lack of guarding was the type of thing SCP should report to Angel. But he also testified that SCP had no “books or classes or training” as to what guards should be used on a pump jack. Supp. App. 209. Nor did SCP provide its pumpers with any formal safety training. Angel’s managing member similarly testified that the need for a guard is “something the pumpers and field people should know,” id. at 202, but he also said that Angel never confirmed that SCP knew what was required by safety regulations, including a federal OSHA regulation requiring guarding on machinery. Martinez testified that although he was aware of the lack of guarding, he was never told it was necessary or that he should report it. And despite testimony from a NGS mechanic that there was no guarding on Woodbury [973]*9732-2 as far back as 2003, there is no evidence in the record that this was ever reported to Angel.

Anticipating that his suit may be barred by the Oklahoma Workers’ Compensation Act’s exclusive remedy provision, Martinez’s complaint alternatively alleged his case fell within the Act’s intentional tort exception. As relief, he sought actual and punitive damages, and his wife brought derivative claims for loss of consortium and household services.

Angel moved for summary judgment on various grounds. The district court found the danger of the unguarded belt was open and obvious and therefore Angel had no duty to warn or otherwise remedy the condition. The court also found that, even if the Oklahoma Workers’ Compensation Act applied, there was no genuine issue of material fact as to whether Angel acted with knowledge that Martinez’s injury was substantially certain to occur. Finally, because both of Martinez’s claims failed, the court entered summary judgment on his wife’s claims because they were derivative of his.

II. Analysis

Martinez argues the district court erred in granting summary judgment to Angel. We review a district court’s grant of summary judgment de novo, and because this is a diversity case, “we ascertain and apply [Oklahoma] law such that we reach the result that would be reached by [an Oklahoma] court.” McIntosh v. Scottsdale Ins. Co., 992 F.2d 251, 253 (10th Cir.1993).

A. Premises Liability

Martinez asserts four grounds on which we should reverse the district court on the premises liability claim: (1) Angel’s failure to comply with an OSHA regulation requiring safety guards constitutes negligence per se; (2) fact issues exist as to whether the unguarded belt was an open and obvious danger because circumstances existed distracting Martinez’s attention; (3) competing inferences as to whether the unguarded belt had a deceptively innocent appearance and whether Martinez fully appreciated the danger posed preclude a finding that the belt was an open and obvious danger as a matter of law; and (4) even if the danger was open and obvious, a duty nonetheless exists because Angel should have anticipated the harm.

We conclude the first two arguments were not raised in the district court and are forfeited. We also reject the third argument and affirm the district court’s finding that reasonable minds could not differ as to the open and obvious nature of the unguarded belt. We cannot dismiss the fourth argument, however, because Oklahoma now recognizes an exception to the open and obvious doctrine where the landowner should have reasonably foreseen the harm.

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798 F.3d 968, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 13613, 2015 WL 4620485, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/martinez-v-angel-exploration-llc-ca10-2015.