Larry Hall, a Texas resident, has filed a lawsuit against Apache Corporation, accusing the company of negligence and gross negligence following a catastrophic incident that left him with severe burn injuries. The complaint was filed on October 11, 2024, in the District Court of Harris County, Texas.
The lawsuit stems from an incident on October 9, 2024, when Hall was working at a wellsite owned by Apache Corporation. According to the complaint, Hall and his co-workers from Warrior Technologies, LLC were tasked with cleaning battery tanks. The plaintiff alleges that Apache Corporation failed to conduct necessary safety measures such as advance testing of tank contents and proper grounding of equipment. As a result, vapors ignited while Hall was cleaning a tank due to ungrounded systems running near an oil and gas separator owned by Apache. This negligence allegedly led to Hall being engulfed in flames, causing life-changing injuries.
Hall's legal team argues that Apache Corporation is liable under the doctrine of respondeat superior for the actions or omissions of its employees acting within their employment scope. The petition claims that Apache's negligent acts included failing to perform operations safely, not maintaining safety procedures for well workover operations, and neglecting to warn about potential dangers despite having actual knowledge of them.
In addition to negligence claims, Hall accuses Apache Corporation of gross negligence. He asserts that the company's actions involved an extreme degree of risk with conscious indifference to his rights and safety. As such, he seeks exemplary damages alongside compensation for medical expenses (past and future), physical pain and suffering (past and future), mental anguish (past and future), loss of earnings capacity (past and future), disfigurement (past and future), cost of medical monitoring in the future, and other damages deemed appropriate by the court.
The case is represented by attorneys Ryan H. Zehl, Matthew O. Greenberg, and Boston C. Mallory from Zehl & Associates PC based in Houston. It has been assigned Case ID 2024-70700 in the 334th Judicial District Court presided over by Judge Bernitta Barrett.