Workers on drilling and servicing jobs can share a site with several companies, each tied to the others by contracts. After a serious injury, those contracts can shape who pays and who points a finger. This post explains a New Mexico statute that limits some of the blame-shifting clauses found in well-service agreements.
New Mexico Voids Certain Indemnity Clauses
NMSA 56-7-2 declares that certain agreements connected to oil, gas, or water wells and mineral mines are against public policy and void. The section’s title says it voids agreements, covenants, and promises to indemnify. It applies to agreements for drilling, servicing, or plugging wells, and to work on mine shafts used in mineral exploration or production.
What the Statute Voids
Indemnity means one company promises to cover another company’s losses. Under the statute, that kind of promise is void when it would cover losses from the indemnitee’s own negligence, whether sole or shared. The same is true for losses from the negligence of an independent contractor directly responsible to the indemnitee, and for accidents in operations the indemnitee directs or supervises. In short, a company can’t contract its way out of its own carelessness.
Insurance Terms Can Be Affected Too
The statute also reaches insurance-related terms. Requirements to name someone as an additional insured, waive subrogation rights, or shift indemnity duties onto the primary insured are void when they would be void if written as direct indemnity agreements. That means paperwork that looks like routine insurance language can still run into the statute.
Exceptions Are Narrow
The list is short. The law doesn’t stop a surface estate owner from getting indemnity from a lessee, operator, or contractor doing mineral exploration on the owner’s land. It also doesn’t affect the validity of benefits under the Workers’ Compensation Act. For an injured worker, that means the statute leaves compensation benefits intact.
Why Injured Workers Should Care
These clauses are agreements between companies, and an injured worker isn’t a party to them. The statute affects who bears a loss between companies, and it doesn’t take away a worker’s right to compensation benefits. Claims against companies other than the employer are known as third-party liability claims, and the rules differ from state to state.
Records Worth Keeping
Contracts and site records can show who controlled the work. Workers who can safely do so should keep:
- Job tickets, schedules, and pay records
- Names of every company on the site
- Safety meeting notes and training records
- Photographs of equipment, the work area, and any warnings
- Medical records from the first visit forward
Proof of an employer’s lapses can matter as well. Evidence like this supports proving employer negligence in a New Mexico oil field case.
Serious Injuries, Deaths, and Chemical Exposure
When a worker dies, family members face grief and paperwork at the same time. Learning what happens when an oil field worker dies in New Mexico helps families understand the legal questions that follow.
Chemical hazards add their own risks. Anyone exposed to hydrogen sulfide needs prompt medical care and a written record of the incident.
Local Help for New Mexico Oil Field Workers
Oil field accidents can happen in communities across the state, including Las Cruces. Comparing the contracts with the facts of the accident is where a New Mexico oil field accident lawyer can help.
Workers in the Las Cruces area face the same statute as workers elsewhere in the state. How it applies to a particular contract is a question for a Las Cruces oil field accident lawyer.
Attorney Davie Represents Injured Employees
At Davie & Valdez P.C., founding attorney Roger C. Davie represents employees in wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and serious work injury cases. A 1985 graduate of Texas Tech University School of Law, he is admitted in Texas and New Mexico. He was also board certified in employment law by the State Bar of Texas in 2000.
Next Steps After an Oil Field Injury
Keep every contract, work order, and safety record you can safely obtain, and write down who directed your work on the day of the injury. Injured oil field workers can reach out to us to review how these clauses may affect their situation.