Obaugh v. Drilling Well Control

1 The dispositive question on certiorari is whether the plaintiff [worker] in a negligent-tort action was barred by the Workers Compensation Act from pursuing his common-law remedy. He was injured while employed by one of several contractors on a drilling job. After collecting compensation from his own employer he brought this action against another contractor at the well site. The defendant - an independent contractor - was hired to supervise the drilling of a deep gas well. The workers employer - another contractor - was engaged to unplug shale from the same well. The two contractors were working, side by side, at the well site under separate contracts with the same operator who was their "principal employer" in the sense in which that term is used in 85 O.S. 1971 ? 11 . They were doubtless cooperating in the common task of accomplishing a joint result for their principal employer.