Monge v. RG Petro-Machinery (Group) Co.

701 F.3d 598, 84 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 152, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 25110, 2012 WL 6062511
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedDecember 7, 2012
Docket12-6009
StatusPublished
Cited by107 cases

This text of 701 F.3d 598 (Monge v. RG Petro-Machinery (Group) Co.) 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
Monge v. RG Petro-Machinery (Group) Co., 701 F.3d 598, 84 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 152, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 25110, 2012 WL 6062511 (10th Cir. 2012).

Opinion

MATHESON, Circuit Judge.

In 2007, employees of Richard Energy, an OMahoma company, traveled to China and arranged with RG Petro, a Chinese manufacturer, to purchase rigs that are used to repair oil wells. Richard Energy took possession of the rigs in China and exported them to the United States. The rigs were consigned to Eagle Well Service, Inc. (“EWS”), a Kansas corporation, and delivered in Kansas. EWS later moved one of the rigs to Oklahoma, where Joel Monge, an EWS employee covered by workers’ compensation, was seriously injured during an accident involving the rig.

Mr. Monge filed a diversity action against EWS under Oklahoma’s intentional tort exception to the exclusive remedy of Oklahoma’s Workers’ Compensation Act and against Richard Energy and RG Petro under Oklahoma’s manufacturers’ products liability laws. RG Petro filed a motion to dismiss based on lack of personal jurisdiction, and EWS filed a motion for summary judgment contending the intentional tort exception does not apply. The district *603 court granted both motions. Mr. Monge filed a motion to alter or amend the court’s summary judgment order, which the district court denied except for a request to fix a date in the order.

Mr. Monge appeals, arguing that there is a genuine issue of material fact as to his claim against EWS; that the district court abused its discretion in denying his motion to alter or amend the judgment; and that the district court erred in finding that it lacked personal jurisdiction over RG Petro. Richard Energy settled with Mr. Monge and is not involved in this appeal. 1 Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background

RG Petro manufactures workover rigs, which are used to fix oil wells by drawing pipe from the ground. A traveling block connects sections of pipe to the rig cable as they are pulled from the ground. As the cable is pulled in, the pipe and the traveling block are pulled toward the crown of the derrick, or the top of the rig’s tower. If the rig’s operator pulls too much pipe, or pulls the pipe too quickly, the traveling block can strike the crown and damage the rig in an accident known as a “crown out.”

A device known as a “crown saver” is designed to prevent crown outs by stopping the traveling block when the pipe has been pulled too high. As the pipe rises, the rig’s cable winds around a drum. When too much cable has been pulled, the cable winding around the drum touches the actuating rod of the crown saver, thereby stopping the traveling block.

Rigs are also equipped with a “crown bumper.” A crown bumper is a large block of rubber encapsulating metal rods that in turn are welded to the crown of the rig. In the event of a crown out, the rubber block absorbs some of the impact of the traveling block. It therefore serves the purpose of preventing or mitigating damage and injury from a crown out.

Rig 43, the rig on which Mr. Monge was injured, was manufactured in China by RG Petro and exported to the United States by Richard Energy, an Oklahoma company. It was consigned to EWS, a Kansas company, and shipped by Richard Energy from China to Kansas. EWS later moved it to the worksite in Oklahoma where Mr. Monge was injured. Further facts relevant to personal jurisdiction will be discussed later.

On September 29, 2008, Mr. Monge was injured approximately 40 minutes after a crown out. At the time of the crown out, the rig’s supervisor and regular operator, Jesus Vazquez, was in a nearby truck with the seat down and his hat over his head. Another rig hand, Ipolito Villalobos, was operating the rig. He testified at his deposition that he had been training by doing simple tasks in operating the rig for about six months, and that he did not have very much experience. Mr. Monge was on the rig floor, and another hand, Phillipe Acevedo, was on the derrick.

Jesse Escobedo was Mr. Vazquez’s supervisor and the tool pusher. He generally oversaw operations and ensured the rig had all the necessary equipment and supplies. He was not on the site that day.

Mr. Villalobos mistakenly pulled an extra section of pipe, and the traveling block struck the crown bumper. The actuating rod for the crown saver had been removed, rendering the crown saver inoperable. After the crown out, Mr. Vazquez approached the rig. He and the others looked up at the crown and did not see *604 anything wrong, so they resumed pulling pipe.

Mr. Monge’s expert reported that the welds attaching the crown bumper to the rig’s crown were too small and had not completely fused the steel tubes in the bumper to the backing plate. The impact of the crown out weakened the already faulty welds. About 40 minutes after the crown out, the crown bumper detached and fell, striking Mr. Monge and knocking him from the rig. Mr. Monge was rendered a quadriplegic. Further facts regarding the incident will be presented below.

B. Procedural Background

Mr. Monge filed suit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. Although workers’ compensation is normally the exclusive remedy for an employee claim against an employer in worker injury cases in Oklahoma, Mr. Monge filed suit against EWS under the intentional tort exception to Oklahoma’s Workers’ Compensation Act. He alleged that EWS had (1) intentionally bypassed the crown saver and ignored that it was not functional, (2) failed to train its employees on how to use the crown saver, and (3) allowed an inexperienced worker to operate the rig without supervision and without the crown saver. Mr. Monge also sued RG Petro and Richard Energy under Oklahoma’s manufacturers’ products liability laws.

RG Petro filed a motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. The district court held an evidentiary hearing on that issue and ordered the parties to file supplemental briefs. It concluded that Mr. Monge had failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the court could exercise either specific or general personal jurisdiction over RG Petro.

EWS filed a motion for summary judgment. The district court concluded that Mr. Monge had not proven that there was a genuine issue of fact as to an element of his prima facie case — that EWS knew that an injury such as Mr. Monge’s was substantially certain to result from EWS’s conduct. The court therefore granted summary judgment in favor of EWS.

Mr. Monge then filed a motion to alter or amend the judgment under Rule 59 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure on the basis of previously unavailable evidence. The district court denied the motion on two grounds: (1) the evidence had previously been available and Mr. Monge’s counsel had not established that he had made diligent efforts to discover the evidence; and (2) the evidence would not have affected the court’s summary judgment decision in favor of EWS.

II. DISCUSSION

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701 F.3d 598, 84 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 152, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 25110, 2012 WL 6062511, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/monge-v-rg-petro-machinery-group-co-ca10-2012.