Beaudoin v. Texaco, Inc.

Mark Beaudoin (plaintiff), an employee of Wood Wireline, was sent to a Texaco (defendant) well site before dawn, with no artificial lighting set up, to run a pressure-gradient check. While uncoiling wire from a spool, Beaudoin was struck in the eye and became legally blind in that eye. He sued Texaco for negligently requiring the work in the dark without proper lighting or supervision; Texaco countered that Beaudoin mishandled the wire. Wireline itself was immune from suit under North Dakota law and wasn't a named defendant. The jury awarded over $44,000 and apportioned fault 60 percent to Wireline, 30 percent to Beaudoin, and 10 percent to Texaco, leaving the court to decide how to translate that apportionment into a judgment.