Oil and Gas Company Must Pay Damages to Former Employee’s Estate

Oil and gas company Weatherford US LP doesn’t have to pay punitive damages to the estate of a deceased former employee but lost its argument at the Sixth Circuit that it didn’t violate the Surface Transportation Assistance Act when firing that worker.

Weatherford must also pay compensatory damages and attorneys’ fees, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit said Wednesday.

The appeals court stood by judgments made by the Department of Labor’s Administrative Review Board, which affirmed awards granted by an administrative law judge except for punitive damages that the board said were eliminated when the plaintiff passed ...