HOUSTON - Occidental Petroleum and its Qatar wing have defeated a globe-spanning lawsuit in Texas concerning on-the-job injuries sustained by an Australian man.
Houston federal judge Andrew Hanen on Jan. 3 granted summary judgment to Occidental Petroleum Qatar, years after plaintiff James Johnston had trouble litigating his case in Qatar.
Qatari law gives immunity to oil and gas companies, a fact Johnston was told but argued he "could not believe it." He fell 10 feet from a platform in Doha, Qatar, and suffered severe spine and neck injuries that kept him from traveling back home to Australia.
Johnston was frustrated with how his injury claim was being handled. A Lebanese firm tried to sue Oxy Qatar in Qatar in 2015, an effort that failed at the Supreme Judiciary Council Court of Appeals.
In 2021, Johnston tried again - this time in Texas - and added Occidental as a defendant. Hanen wrote Johnston was never Occidental's employee, as he strictly worked for Oxy Qatar.
"To support this, Oxy attaches Plaintiff's employment contract with Oxy Qatar, which states that Plaintiff's employer is Oxy Qatar, Ltd., and that the employment is governed by Qatari law," Hanen wrote.
"Plaintiff's brief in response fails to address Oxy's argument in any way and, thus, is deemed to have waived any argument that Oxy is a proper defendant."
Oxy Qatar raised the fact that Johnston had missed the proper statute of limitations when he filed his Texas suit, though Johnston argued Oxy Qatar misled him as to his possible legal recourse, which should have given him more time to sue.
"Plaintiff's own response, and a subsequent statement in his own affidavit, however, states that Oxy Qatar informed him of the company's legal protections under Qatari law before he left the company and filed his first lawsuit," Hanen wrote.
"Thus, based on Plaintiff's own sworn statements, he discovered the allegedly misleading statements that serve as the basis for his fraud claim in 2015 at the latest. Thus, even if the discovery rule did apply, Plaintiff's fraud claims would be barred by 2019."
Finally, Oxy Qatar argued any claims were barred by the doctrine of res judicata that prevents them from being re-litigated, while Johnston said Qatari courts never reached the actual merits of his case.
However, the Qatari appeals court's decision was "plainly an affirmance of a substantive ruling," Hanen wrote. That decision reads:
"With respect to the merits of the appeal, the Court finds that the appealed judgment was well founded for the sound reasons underlying it, which are consistent with the facts and the law, and that the evidence established in the documents are sufficient to uphold it."