Davis & Sons, Inc. v. Gulf Oil Corporation
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
919 F.2d 313 (1990)
- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
Gulf Oil Corporation (Gulf) (defendant) leased a field in which Gulf operated 150 mineral wells. The field and Gulf’s wells therein were primarily underwater. Gulf signed a master services agreement with Davis & Sons, Inc. (Davis) (plaintiff), under which Davis would provide general contracting services for Gulf’s facilities in the field. The agreement required Davis to indemnify Gulf for claims arising from the agreement. Gulf issued Davis weekly work orders with specific assignments. Pursuant to one such work order, Davis employees staffed and used a barge in the field to perform work on Gulf’s wells. The employees used the barge as transportation, and also performed work on the wells from the barge. The employees were responsible for maintaining the barge itself. A Davis supervisor on the barge, Mark Brenaman, drowned while working on the barge. After Brenaman’s estate settled with Davis and Gulf, Davis brought suit, seeking a declaratory judgment that Louisiana law applied to the indemnity clause. Gulf counterclaimed that maritime law applied to the clause. The district court granted Davis summary judgment. Gulf appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Rubin, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 802,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
