Tidewater Oil Company v. Waller

Waller (plaintiff), an Oklahoma corporation's employee injured in an airplane crash while working at a remote Turkish drilling site for Tidewater Oil (defendant), sued in Oklahoma federal court alleging his recovery was governed by Turkish law, which he claimed imposed a duty of ordinary care on Tidewater for operating the aircraft and providing a safe landing site; Waller presented no actual evidence of Turkish law at trial, but the district court concluded Turkish law would permit recovery as if the injury occurred in Oklahoma, and the jury found for Waller. Tidewater appealed, arguing the Oklahoma court lacked jurisdiction and that either Turkish or Oklahoma workers' compensation law, not ordinary tort law, should govern.