In an action based on injuries sustained by plaintiff on an oil rig owned by one defendant and operated by another defendant, the district court's judgment holding the operator 55% liable for plaintiff's injuries and the owner 45% liable is affirmed in part where: 1) the reciprocal indemnity agreement between defendants obligated the operator to indemnify the owner for plaintiff's injuries; and 2) the district court did not clearly err in determining that the owner was not the superseding cause of the incident. However, the judgment is reversed in part where: 1) the operator's negligence in failing to properly warn employees how to operate certain machinery on the boat should not have been characterized by the district court as time-charterer negligence; and 2) the parties' agreement only entitled the owner to attorney's fees incurred in defending the underlying tort action. (Superseding opinion)
Read Becker v. Tidewater Inc., No. 08-30183
Appellate Information
Filed October 26, 2009
Judges
Opinion by Judge Benavides