Tidewater Oil Company v. Waller

302 F.2d 638 (1962)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P, an employee of Spartan Aircraft Company (D), an Oklahoma manufacturer of mobile homes, was sent to Turkey to perform repair work on behalf of his Oklahoma employer on mobile homes belonging to a pipeline company. P was also sent to work on Tidewater’s (D) mobile homes at a very remote location. P was injured when Tidewater's (D) plane crashed. It was stipulated that P was injured in the course of his employment with Spartan (D), his Oklahoma employer and that he was paid $35.00 per week in lieu of Oklahoma's workmen's compensation, and all hospital and medical care. P sued Tidewater (D) and also filed a workmen's compensation claim with the Oklahoma Workmen's Compensation Commission, and at the same time sought and obtained an order of the Commission holding the claim in abeyance pending the outcome of this litigation. It was specifically alleged that P’s right to recover was to be determined by the laws of Turkey, under which Tidewater (D) owed P the duty to use ordinary care in the operation of the aircraft, and to furnish a reasonably safe place on which to land it; and that res ipsa loquitur was recognized in Turkey and applicable here. Tidewater (D) denied the allegations of negligence or that res ipsa loquitur was applicable. Tidewater (D) asserted that any claim or right of action is exclusively cognizable under either the workmen's compensation law of the country of Turkey or of the State of Oklahoma and that Tidewater (D) was secondarily and hence exclusively liable for workmen's compensation benefits; and that the Oklahoma court was therefore without jurisdiction to entertain this suit. At trial, no one offered any information on Turkish law. The court proceeded upon the premise that the tort laws of Turkey permitted recovery for the asserted wrong as if in Oklahoma. On the second trial, P got the verdict. Tidewater (D) appealed. Tidewater (D) claims that P accepted Oklahoma benefits and that Tidewater (D) had become secondarily liable.