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Missouri oil worker injured by dropped pipe can sue drilling-rig colleague

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Missouri oil worker injured by dropped pipe can sue drilling-rig colleague

A Missouri worker who was involved in an oil rig accident can file a negligence claim against his colleague outside of workers compensation exclusive remedy provisions, the Missouri Court of Appeals has ruled.

Skyler Leeper was guiding a 500-pound pipe into the tower of a drilling rig in August 2011 when a loose cable caused the pipe to fall and crush his arm, court records show. Mr. Leeper filed a negligence claim against his colleague, Andy Asmus, who was lifting the pipe with a drilling rig winch at the time of the accident, saying Mr. Asmus didn't ensure the cable was tight before lifting the pipe.

The accident occurred prior to amendments to Missouri's Workers' Compensation Act in 2012, which extend workers comp exclusive remedy protection to co-workers — unless an employee is injured as a result of the co-worker's “affirmative negligent act that purposefully and dangerously caused or increased the risk of injury,” according to records.

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In April 2013, the Morgan County, Missouri Circuit Court dismissed Mr. Leeper's suit, agreeing with Mr. Asmus that it was the employer's responsibility to provide a safe workplace, and therefore that workers comp was Mr. Leeper's exclusive remedy, records show.

However, Mr. Leeper argued in an amended petition that a “500-pound pipe falling from a Schramm drilling rig is not a normal risk of operating and working on a Schramm drilling rig” and that he was “subjected to a risk which was something more than the normal risk of operating and working on a Schramm drilling rig.”

A three-judge panel of the Missouri Court of Appeals Western District in Kansas City unanimously reversed the trial court's judgment on Tuesday, nothing that Mr. Leeper's “amended petition alleges sufficient facts to establish an independent duty of care owed by a co-employee at common law.”

“These facts, taken as true, establish a duty owed by Asmus to Leeper independent of the employer's nondelegable duties” to provide a safe workplace, the ruling reads.

The case has been remanded to the circuit court for further proceedings. Mr. Leeper must now prove the employer provided a safe workplace, which became unsafe because of Mr. Asmus' actions, according to records.