The family of a man who died in an accident in a North Dakota oil patch filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the companies that owned the well. A judge recently threw the case out on the grounds that the company should not be held responsible for alleged negligence from subcontractors who had a bigger role in running daily operations at the site.

Joseph Kronberg died in 2011 when he was electrocuted outside of a change shack at the Nabors Drilling oil rig. He stepped on a metal grate, which had an exposed electrical cord lying on it that was also lying in a nearby puddle of water. A change shack is typically a place with bathrooms or showers, maybe even a relaxation area or a small kitchen area for workers.

Kronberg’s family said that Oasis Petroleum, who had the property rights to the well, and RPM Consulting, who provided Oasis with engineering support and other subcontractors to help drill, were negligent and should be held responsible for his death. The family initially named other subcontractors in the suit but when a U.S. District Judge ruled that neither Oasis nor RPM Consulting were legally liable, the family dropped their suit against the other subcontractors and appealed, saying that the two named companies still owed “a duty of care”.

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that the suit should be dismissed, that neither company had control over the property. The metal grate and the generator which provided the electricity to the cord were both owned by a subcontractor, Nabors Drilling. They were later fined by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for safety violations related to the accident.

Besides the companies having no ownership or control of the property that was actually involved in the accidents, neither Oasis Petroleum nor RPM Consulting gave instructions on how the well should operate on a daily basis, so they should not be responsible for the actions or negligence of subcontractors who were there day-to-day, said the court.