Court Opinion

ID: 9476117
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:47:43.087007+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:45:08.003182
License: Public Domain

WATSON, Justice,
dissenting as to Certified Questions I and II; concurring in the answer to Question III.
In LSA-R.S. 9:2780, the legislature of Louisiana declared it to be against the State’s public policy for oil companies to impose upon their service companies, through contracts of adhesion, an obligation to defend or indemnify the oil companies, where there is negligence, strict liability, or fault on the part of the oil companies or those for whom they are answerable.
Under the well settled law of Louisiana, the pleadings of a suit determine the obligation to defend. The federal courts have correctly decided the first two certified questions in Sullen v. Missouri Pacific Railroad Co., 750 F.2d 428 (5 Cir.,1985); Laird v. Shell Oil Co., 770 F.3d 508 (5 Cir., 1985); and in an excellent opinion by Judge Duplantier in the case at bar.1 Also see *281Babineaux v. McBroom Rig Bldg. Service, Inc., 806 F.2d 1282 (5 Cir., 1987). The majority errs in disregarding the settled federal and state jurisprudence as to the obligation to defend.2 The pleading of the suit, not the outcome of the case, also determine the obligation to pay defense costs.3
I respectfully dissent from the majority’s answers to the first two certified questions and concur as to the third.

. 784 F.2d 1320 (5 Cir., 1986).

. "In Knapp v. Chevron U.S.A., Inc., 781 F.2d 1123 (5th Cir., 1986), the court found that there was no basis in the Act or under Louisiana law for allowing an indemnitee to recover costs of defense. Citing Sullen v. Missouri Pacific Railroad Co., 750 F.2d 428 (5th Cir.1985), the court held that whether a party is obliged to tender a defense to another party depends entirely upon the allegations in the precipitating pleadings. It stated that if the pleadings of the plaintiff-employee allege negligence on the part of the indemnitee, the ultimate outcome of the litigation is of no moment since the duty to defend is voided by the Act ab initio and in its entirety. This ruling has now become firmly entrenched.” D. Panagiotis, Offshore Update — Five Years After Passage: Contractual Indemnity, Defense, and Insurance Under the Louisiana Oilfield Indemnity Act, The Maritime Lawyer, Vol. X, No. 2 (1985).

. See the discussion in 47 Louisiana L.Rev. 87.