PATRICK E. HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judge:
The district court granted a motion for partial summary judgment, finding that the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act ("OCSLA") applied to the parties' contractual dispute, and thus, pursuant to the OCSLA choice of law provision, Louisiana law applied, under which the Louisiana Oilfield Indemnity Act ("LOIA") invalidated the indemnity provisions. M-I, L.L.C. ("M-I") timely appealed.
M-I has provided performance fluids management services for British Petroleum's ("BP") drilling operations at multiple locations throughout the United States for over twelve years. M-I and BP entered into a Master Services Agreement ("MSA"), effective February 1, 2009, which governed all future offshore drilling services that M-I would perform for BP on both vessels and stationary platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Although the MSA included detailed terms, it did not itself call for the performance of any work. Instead, it provided that BP would issue work orders for work to be performed by M-I, which M-I was not obligated to accept. In practice, BP did not issue formal work orders to M-I. Rather, M-I assigned a team of its employees to work at BP's offices with BP employees so that BP could communicate directly to M-I, often orally, when it needed M-I to perform work.
The current dispute concerns the MSA's indemnification provisions and the insurance agreements supporting M-I's indemnification obligations. Specifically, the MSA obligated M-I to indemnify BP for
Charles Hernandez, a M-I employee who had worked on numerous vessels and platforms operated by different companies, including BP, was injured in October 2009 while working aboard the Thunder Horse, a stationary platform operated by BP. Hernandez filed a workers' compensation claim against M-I as well as a personal injury lawsuit against M-I and BP in Texas state court. In accordance with the indemnity terms in the MSA, BP tendered Hernandez's claims in the state court lawsuit to M-I and M-I accepted BP's tender. M-I entered into a settlement of all of Hernandez's claims.
ACE then filed an action for declaratory judgment, seeking a declaration that ACE does not owe M-I coverage payments for any claims asserted against M-I or BP in Hernandez's suit. M-I filed state law counterclaims against ACE for breach of contract and violations of Chapters 541 and 542 of the Texas Insurance Code. M-I moved for summary judgment as to its counterclaims and ACE moved for partial summary judgment on the applicability of OCSLA to the dispute. The district court granted ACE's motion for partial summary judgment. We affirm.
The sole issue on appeal is whether, pursuant to the OCSLA, Louisiana law governs the indemnity provisions. 43 U.S.C. § 1333(a), the OCSLA choice of law provision, provides:
If, pursuant to the OCSLA, the adjacent law of Louisiana applies, then the LOIA
The district court below found that the OCSLA applied, under which the LOIA invalidated the indemnity provisions. We agree.
Under Union Texas Petroleum Corp. v. PLT Engineering, Inc., three requirements must be met for state law to apply as surrogate federal law under the OCSLA. First, "[t]he controversy must arise on a situs covered by the OCLSA (i.e. the subsoil, seabed, or artificial structures permanently or temporarily attached thereto)."
"This Court reviews de novo a district court order granting a motion for summary judgment, applying the same standards as did the district court."
Turning to the first requirement of the PLT test, the controversy at issue must arise on an OCSLA situs, namely the seabed, subsoil, and fixed structures of the outer Continental Shelf. We find the indemnity dispute arises on an OCSLA situs, specifically on a stationary platform.
The situs of the controversy in a contractual dispute depends on the focus of the contract.
We conclude that Grand Isle governs M-I's appeal. Here, M-I and BP entered into a "blanket" MSA. Although the MSA included detailed terms, even stipulating the platforms and vessels on which M-I may perform work for BP, it did not call for any specific work to be performed. Instead, the MSA required specific job assignments, such that those job assignments, incorporating the terms of the MSA, converted the MSA into a contract governing work. Under the MSA, BP was not obligated to request work from M-I and M-I was not obligated to accept work orders issued by BP.
That BP did not issue a formal work order to M-I for Hernandez's work on the Thunder Horse is not determinative; the MSA did not require formal work orders. Some direction was needed to authorize M-I to perform work for BP and M-I's creation of service tickets and time sheets, tied to each particular platform or vessel where M-I performed work under the MSA, provide evidence of the location where work was to be performed pursuant to the specific work order as well as the scope of that particular work order. Under Grand Isle we look to the location of the majority of the work pursuant to the specific work order. Focusing on the location of the specific work order is not a return to the "fortuitous" location of the injury approach. There is nothing fortuitous about determining the applicable law by looking to the location of the specific work order.
Turning to the second requirement of the PLT test, in order for the OCSLA choice of law provision to apply, maritime law must not apply of its own force. Determining whether maritime law applies of its own force involves a two-step inquiry — first, an examination of the historical treatment of contracts of that type in the jurisprudence and second, a six-factor "fact-specific" inquiry into the nature of the contract.
Under Davis & Sons, Inc. v. Gulf Oil Corp., explicitly endorsed in Grand Isle, we must analyze whether the particular work order, not the blanket contract, is maritime in nature.
The parties do not dispute the third requirement of the PLT test — that state law not be inconsistent with federal law. We agree with the district court's analysis of the issue and see no need to further address it here.
We AFFIRM.