## Facts

- Gulf Oil Corporation owned and operated a fixed drilling platform on the Outer Continental Shelf off Louisiana.
- Gulf contracted with Dresser Industries, Inc. to provide wireline services and with Huthnance Drilling Company as the drilling contractor operating the platform crane.
- Russell L. Ketchum, a Dresser employee, was injured when a Huthnance crane operator attempted to lift a wireline spool.
- Dresser paid Ketchum workers’ compensation benefits under the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA).
- Ketchum sued Gulf and Huthnance for personal injuries; Gulf and Huthnance filed a third-party action against Dresser seeking contribution or indemnity.

## Issues

1. Whether the LHWCA, as applied to a fixed Outer Continental Shelf platform through the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), immunizes an employer that paid LHWCA benefits from third-party claims for contribution or non-contractual indemnity arising from the employee’s injury.
2. Whether Gulf or Huthnance showed any express contractual or other recognized indemnity basis sufficient to impose liability on the employer despite LHWCA exclusivity.

## Decision

- The Fifth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for Dresser dismissing the third-party claims.
- The court held that LHWCA § 905(a) limited Dresser’s liability to LHWCA benefits and barred contribution and implied indemnity claims by third-party tortfeasors “on account of” the employee’s injury.
- OCSLA did not permit application of state-law contribution or indemnity theories that would expand the employer’s liability beyond the LHWCA.
- No express contractual indemnity obligation running from Dresser to Gulf or Huthnance was shown.
- Because the dispute turned on legal effect of the LHWCA/OCSLA and the absence of a contractual indemnity clause, summary judgment was proper.

## Legal Principles

- Under 33 U.S.C. § 905(a), an employer’s liability for a covered injury is exclusive, barring additional tort liability to the employee and to third parties seeking damages “on account of” the injury through contribution or implied indemnity.
- Under OCSLA, the LHWCA supplies the compensation scheme for qualifying injuries on fixed Outer Continental Shelf platforms; state law may apply only as surrogate federal law when not inconsistent with federal law.
- State-law remedies that would impose contribution or indemnity liability on an LHWCA employer beyond statutory benefits conflict with § 905(a) and are precluded.
- An indemnity claim against an LHWCA employer requires a valid, express contractual obligation; absent such a provision, third-party tortfeasors cannot shift liability to the employer.

## Conclusion

The court held that an employer who paid LHWCA benefits for an employee injured on a fixed Outer Continental Shelf platform is immune from third-party contribution and implied indemnity claims under § 905(a), and that OCSLA does not allow inconsistent state-law theories or nonexpress indemnity to overcome that statutory bar.


Ketchum v. Gulf Oil Corp., 798 F.2d 159 (5th Cir. 1986)