Contractual indemnities are important and valuable in the oil patch. When they are enforceable, they have the potential to end litigation completely or at least the financial burden for a particularly well-positioned indemnitee. But, with “anti-indemnity” statutes in play in several jurisdictions (including Louisiana), the enforceability of these indemnity provisions rely (barring exceptions) on the
Louisiana Oilfield Indemnity Act
A How-To Guide for Determining Whether a Contract is Maritime
By Daniel Stanton on
In the recent U.S. Fifth Circuit case of In re Larry Doiron, Inc., 849 F.3d 602 (5th Cir. 2017), the Court considered an often pivotal question in many offshore personal injury cases: is the contract governing the relationship of the parties a maritime contract?
While this issue is not new to the offshore oil…
Peremption: A Legal “Bar” Sufficient to Circumvent the Louisiana Oilfield Indemnity Act
By Daniel Stanton on
Posted in Admiralty and Maritime, Louisiana In General
In the recent Fifth Circuit case of Hefren v. Murphy Exploration & Production Company, USA, et al., 2016 WL 1637758 (5th Cir. April 25, 2016), the court took up the riveting issue of contractual defense and indemnification. All levity aside, the issue addressed by the court is one that arises in nearly every case…
U.S. Fifth Circuit Holds That Platform Decommissioning Operations Fall Under Louisiana Oilfield Indemnity Act
By Tod Everage on
A typical oilfield personal injury case in (or off the coast of) Louisiana involves a review of the relevant contracts and an analysis of whether demands for defense and indemnity can be made (and enforced) against other contracting parties. And, typically, the party on the receiving end of such a demand – usually the plaintiff’s…