$5.19 Million Verdict for Oilfield Worker Maimed by Ejected Well Component, Entered at $2.89 Million
After trial: Affirmed in full on January 6, 2016 (2016 WY 3), with the damages award undisturbed. The judgment is $2,885,928.90 against Merit, which paid only its own 45 percent share because Wyoming is a several-liability state.
Won by The Spence Law Firm.
A Sweetwater County jury returned a $5.19 million verdict for oilfield worker Blake Horr after a rubber well component, ejected by trapped pressure that Merit Energy's supervisor failed to relieve, shattered bones and severed nerves in his left hand and arm during a 2011 work-over operation in Bairoil, Wyoming.
What happened
On April 11, 2011, Blake Horr was working for Basic Energy Services, Inc. at a Merit Energy well in the Lost Soldier Unit near Bairoil, Wyoming. The crew had been directed to perform a work-over operation, a routine maintenance procedure that involves pulling components from the wellbore. What should have been a standard job turned dangerous because of a decision made by Merit's on-site supervisor, known in the industry as the 'company man.'
The well was a CO2-injected production well. Before any work-over can safely proceed, trapped pressure between the blowout preventer stack and the rubber wellhead components must be bled off. Merit's company man ordered the crew to begin work without verifying the well was safe. The pressure was still there.
When the crew attempted to remove a rubber wellhead component, the trapped pressure fired it out of the well. It struck Horr's left hand and arm at high velocity, shattering bones and severing nerves. The injuries were serious and permanent.
Horr filed suit against Merit in the District Court of Sweetwater County (Case CV-2012-584-L), arguing that Merit retained control over the critical safety decision that caused the incident. G. Bryan Ulmer III of The Spence Law Firm, together with associate Grant Lawson, represented Horr at trial. The central issue was whether Merit, as the company that directed the work, bore responsibility for the conditions that made it dangerous, even though Horr was employed by an independent contractor.
On July 9, 2014, the jury returned a verdict of $5.19 million. It apportioned fault at 45 percent to Merit Energy, 45 percent to Basic Energy Services, and 10 percent to Horr. Merit's share of the judgment came to more than $2.3 million.
Merit appealed, contesting the jury instructions and the denial of its motion for judgment as a matter of law. In January 2016, the Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed the district court's judgment in full (Merit Energy Co., LLC v. Horr, 2016 WY 3). The court held that the district court correctly instructed the jury to decide whether Merit retained control over the part of the work that caused Horr's injury, and that the evidence supported the jury's conclusion that it had. The damages award was not disturbed.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
More proven verdicts from The Spence Law Firm
All The Spence Law Firm proven verdicts →After a seven-day bench trial in Sublette County, a Wyoming district court awarded APMTG Helium $35,199,276.79 against Denbury Onshore for failing to deliver helium under a long-term supply contract, and the Wyoming Supreme Court upheld the award in December 2020.
A Black Hawk County jury returned a $13.6 million verdict for Jarvis Lee Boggs, paralyzed when a Waterloo police officer ran a red light at 61 mph without lights or siren and slammed into his car at 12:45 a.m. on New Year's Eve 2008.
A federal jury in Wyoming awarded Amber Lompe $28.2 million after carbon monoxide from a faulty furnace caused permanent brain injury at her Casper apartment, a verdict that stood as one of the largest personal-injury awards in Wyoming history before the Tenth Circuit reduced the punitive component on due-process grounds.
A Green River jury returned a $10.165 million verdict for a Rock Springs man whose legs were amputated after Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County and its physician failed to recognize and treat an acute vascular emergency.
Related workplace injury verdicts
After nearly 30 years of litigation, Markovits Stock and DeMarco secured a $742 million-plus-interest settlement for approximately 23,000 Navistar retirees whose healthcare and life insurance benefits had been repeatedly reduced.
Paul Napoli served as court-appointed co-liaison counsel for nearly 10,000 firefighters, police officers, and construction workers who developed respiratory diseases after working at Ground Zero, securing a settlement worth up to $712.5 million against the city and its contractors.
Jose Valdivia, 25, was building scaffolding at the Phillips 66 refinery in Lake Charles when a co-worker above him lost his grip on a steel scaffold bar. It struck him on the head and spine through a hard hat and full protective equipment. He is in a wheelchair with limited speech. Brock never reported the accident to OSHA.
On September 7, 2019, Ulysses Cruz, a 48-year-old United Airlines ramp worker serving as a wing walker at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, was struck from behind by an Allied Aviation Fueling Company of Houston van whose driver said the morning sun was in his eyes. Cruz was paralyzed from the chest down and suffered a stroke two days later that cost him the use of his dominant right arm. After a two-week trial before Judge Ravi Sandill, a Harris County jury on October 25, 2021 found Allied 70 percent and driver Reginald Willis 30 percent at fault and awarded Cruz, his wife and their two children $352.7 million in compensatory damages. Judge Sandill conditioned denial of a new trial on a $117.5 million remittitur of noneconomic damages, which the family accepted, and an amended judgment of about $235.3 million was signed February 7, 2022. Allied appealed, the parties reached a confidential mediated settlement, and on July 18, 2023 the First Court of Appeals vacated the judgment and dismissed the case at the parties' joint request.