Opinion ID: 1611019
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Is the oil well a product?

Text: Holifield claims that courts have consistently held that oil wells and drilling equipment are products, citing 63 Am.Jur.2d, Products Liability, § 755 (1985), and Harrist v. Spencer-Harris Tool Co., 244 Miss. 84, 140 So.2d 558 (1962). Getty contends that the well was at best used equipment which is not subject to strict tort liability for injuries arising from its use, citing Pridgett v. Jackson Iron & Metal, 253 So.2d 837, 840 (Miss. 1971). This Court finds persuasive the analysis used in Gardner v. Chevron, U.S.A., Inc., 675 F.2d 658 (5th Cir.1982), in which the survivors of Rudolph Gardner brought an action against Chevron in strict liability in tort. Gardner was killed as a result of a fire which started when a steel pipe broke spraying hot oil on a truck causing an explosion. The flowing oil well was owned and operated by Chevron. The Fifth Circuit, applying Texas law, affirmed a summary judgment in favor of Chevron, holding that the oil well was not a product and Chevron was not a seller engaged in the business of selling such products. Ibid. at 660. See also Arenivas v. Continental Oil Co., 102 N.M. 106, 692 P.2d 31 (App. 1983); Dunn v. Penrod Drilling Co., 660 F. Supp. 757 (S.D.Tex. 1987). This Court holds that the wellhead is not a product as contemplated by § 402A.