Oil & Gas Transfer LLC v. Karr, No. 18-1461 (8th Cir. 2019)
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The Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of OGT in an action brought by the oil field construction company to quiet a pipeline title based on defendant's ineligibility to claim a lien under North Dakota Century Code 35-24-04. The court agreed with the district court that defendant was an employee, rather than an independent contractor, and that section 35-24-04 does not confer lien rights upon employees.
In this case, the factors that indicated that defendant was an employee include, among other things, that defendant earned a weekly salary that OGT paid him regardless of the number of hours, amount of work, or number of projects he completed; defendant completed a W-4 to indicate his tax withholdings; OGT withheld and paid employment taxes on defendant's wages and reported his income to him and the IRS on a Form W-2; OGT offered defendant regular employment benefits; and he worked full-time for OGT and no one else.
Court Description: Gruender, Author, with Benton and Grasz, Circuit Judges] Civil case - Oil and Gas. The district court did not err in determining that Karr was plaintiff's employee and not an independent contractor; North Dakota law does not confer lien rights to employees and the district court did not err in granting plaintiff's motion for summary judgment to quiet title in its favor.
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