$2.2 Million Verdict for Oilfield Worker Hurt When Baker Hughes Packer Tool Exploded

In mid-December 2005, Jose Sandoval was working as a floor hand for Key Energy Services on a well site in New Mexico owned by Latigo Petroleum. His job that day put him alongside a Baker Hughes employee who was setting a packer tool in the well. Once the tool was retrieved, the crew attempted to release pressure from it. The tool exploded instead.

The blast sent the handle of a chain tong striking Sandoval in the right leg. The impact caused a comminuted fracture of the right femoral shaft, a pattern of splintering so complex that the treating surgeon said it was unlike anything he had seen in more than twenty years of practice. Surgeons stabilized the bone with a metal rod and screws. Sandoval was left with ongoing pain, fatigue, and a diminished capacity to work.

Sandoval sued Baker Hughes Oilfield Operations, Inc. in District Court, arguing the company had been negligent in how it designed, operated, and maintained the packer tool and in how it supervised the pressure-release procedure. Baker Hughes contested liability throughout trial.

The jury sided entirely with Sandoval. It assigned Baker Hughes 100% of the fault and awarded $2.2 million in damages: roughly $100,000 to cover past medical bills and lost wages, with the rest going to future lost earnings and compensation for pain and suffering. The trial court also assessed 15% post-judgment interest, finding the tortious nature of the conduct warranted the elevated rate.

Baker Hughes appealed both the damages award and the interest rate to the New Mexico Court of Appeals. The appellate court affirmed in full. It found the evidence sufficient to support the amount awarded, concluded the verdict was not grossly disproportionate to the harm proven, and upheld the enhanced interest rate as a proper exercise of the trial court's discretion. The opinion was filed July 21, 2009, and released for publication September 8, 2009, as 2009 NMCA 095, 146 N.M. 853, 215 P.3d 791.

Paul Tellez of Ruhmann Law Firm, based in El Paso, served as one of Sandoval's trial attorneys alongside co-counsel Royce E. Hoskins and Robert Trenchard Jr. of Trenchard and Hoskins in Roswell, New Mexico.