HOUSTON - An Oklahoma company can't be sued in Texas for injuries to a Louisiana man working in New Mexico, a Texas appeals court has found.
It was wrong for the Harris County District Court to assume personal jurisdiction over the matter, brought by Brian Cormier against Devon Energy, the First District Court of Appeals ruled Nov. 14.
Cormier was working for Harris County-based Nabors Drilling Technologies on an oil rig in New Mexico when he was allegedly thrown from it and suffered severe injuries.
He sued Nabors and Devon in March 2020. To assert Texas jurisdiction over Devon, Cormier alleged it conducts a substantial amount of business there and has a building downtown named after it.
"(T)he Devon entities presented jurisdictional evidence negating that their contracts with Texas render them essentially 'at home' in Texas," Justice Richard Hightower wrote.
"Cormier failed to bring forward jurisdictional evidence of contacts that are exceptional such that they render the Devon entities 'comparable to a domestic enterprise in [Texas].'
Hightower cited U.S. Supreme Court rulings, like a 2017 decision that wouldn't let Montana courts assert jurisdiction over Delaware-based BNSF for injuries that did not occur in Montana.
Cormier argued Devon's presence in Texas opened it to jurisdiction there. The company owns over 100,000 acres in the state, produces at least 47,000 barrels of oil there each day and advertised that 15% of its production in 2019 came from Texas.
It has also faced other litigation in Texas without raising the jurisdiction argument.
"Operations substantial enough to render a nonresident corporation 'at home' requires more than contacts that are, in some sense, continuous and systematic contacts," Hightower wrote.
"Cormier's own jurisdictional evidence suggests that the Devon entities' interests in Texas for only 15% of the companies' overall production.
"The evidence presented by Cormier indicates that the Devon entities' business activities in this state essentially revolve around its interest in approximately 100,000 acres in Eagle Ford. While this single asset is significant, there is no evidence that it was the 'focus' of the Devon entities' business."