Jerry K. Simpson v. Home Petroleum Corporation and Home Oil Corporation

ROBERT MADDEN HILL, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiff-appellant Jerry Simpson brought this Texas diversity action against the lessee under an oil and gas lease, its parent, and the lessee’s drilling consultant for injuries he received in a drilling rig accident as a result of the alleged negligence of the drilling consultant. Simpson appeals from a judgment in favor of the lessee based upon the jury’s finding that the drilling consultant was acting not as an agent or an employee of the lessee but rather as an independent contractor. As a consequence, no respondeat superior liability could attach to the…