Beaudoin v. Texaco, Inc.

Memorandum and Judgment On Jury Verdict

VAN SICKLE, District Judge.

A collision of legal principles renders a truly equitable result in this case impossible. The difficult decision confronting this court is which inequitable result is most proper.

Mark Beaudoin, the plaintiff, was an employee of Wood Wireline. Texaco, Inc., the defendant, hired Wireline to conduct a pressure gradient check on Texaco’s well, CM Loomer # 13 near Keene, North Dakota.

Beaudoin and a co-worker arrived on the unlighted site before dawn on February 21, 1983, to prepare their equipment for the job. Beaudoin was uncoiling…