Oklahoma’s top court threw out a provision of a state law that gave special protection to oil and gas companies from lawsuits over the deaths and injuries of workers on their well site.

The state’s Supreme Court, in an 8-0 decision with one recusal, ruled on Jan. 23, 2018, that the provision was unconstitutional. The court found “no valid reason exists for the special treatment of the oil and gas industry.”

Oklahoma City lawyer Luke Abel of the Abel Law Firm, who won the case, said the decision should have a big impact on the industry.

“We’re a big oil and gas state. There is no doubt about that. But I’m not surprised by the Supreme Court’s ruling because what the legislature did was put in a one-sentence essentially immunity for the owner/operator of an oil and gas rig. No other industry I’m aware of got that special treatment,” Abel said.

The ruling grew out of a lawsuit filed by the daughter of David Chambers, a trucking employee dispatched in 2014 to an oil-well site in Crescent, Oklahoma, to pick up waste water. Chambers suffered severe burns while working around a device known as a “heat treater” and died without ever leaving the hospital.

Chambers’ daughter, Glory Strickland, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in district court against the well owner and operator, Stephens Production Company, and others alleging negligence for failure to properly operate, maintain, and inspect the well, and failure to properly warn of dangerous conditions at the well site.

The Stephens company sought dismissal of the lawsuit based on the immunity provision which had been inserted in the Oklahoma Administrative Workers’ Compensation Act in 2013 as part of a national movement to make it harder for individuals to sue companies.

The district court judge denied the company’s motion, finding the provision unconstitutional. The judge certified his ruling for immediate review by the Supreme Court.

An official at Stephens Production said the company would have no comment.

“Obviously we know people have been injured working on oil and gas rigs (since 2013). I can assure you it’s affected those workers,” Abel said.

Abel said the Chambers case returns to the district court for further proceedings.

The case at the Oklahoma Supreme Court is Strickland v. Stephens Production, 2018 OK 6, Case No. 115635.