Going Back To The Well – A Curious Opinion By The Fifth Circuit Resolves District Court Split Regarding Application Of The Louisiana Anti-Indemnity Act To Decommissioning Work
As previously reported on Striding the Quarterdeck, district courts within the federal Fifth Circuit had split over recent years as to whether the Texas and Louisiana Oilfield Anti-Indemnity Acts (TOAIA, Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code §127.001 et seq., and LOAIA, La. Rev. Stat. §9:2780) applied to platform decommissioning work. Both statutes in general prohibit indemnity and additional insured agreements in contracts for work “pertaining to a well,” a broadly worded operative clause that has been interpreted to include everything from catering work on production platforms to shoreside fabrication of a platform that would eventually be used at a producing well. (more…)
