October 28, 2020
Oil and gas equipment maker Consolidated Rig Works can't withhold certain documents about the death of a worker performing maintenance on one of its rigs, since the documents weren't primarily made in preparation for litigation, a Pennsylvania federal judge found Wednesday.
January 17, 2020
A Pennsylvania drilling company can't be pulled into the wrongful-death lawsuit over a worker killed by a falling piece of equipment because the law of the state where he died gave immunity to employers and trumped the Texas law chosen in a contract between the driller and its equipment provider, a Pittsburgh federal judge ruled Thursday.
January 07, 2020
An indemnity clause buried in the user manual for a piece of industrial drilling equipment shouldn't bind a drilling contractor to a lawsuit brought by the family of an employee killed when the equipment allegedly failed, an attorney for the contractor told a Pittsburgh federal judge Tuesday.
November 05, 2019
A gas drilling contractor can't cite a loophole in Pennsylvania law to duck its alleged duty to defend a Texas company in a wrongful-death suit, since the companies' contract said Texas law applied, according to a filing Monday in Pittsburgh federal court.