Pan American Petroleum Corp. v. Maddux Well Service

In Pan American Petroleum Corp. v. Maddux Well Service, 586 P.2d 1220, 1224 (Wyo. 1978), the Court held that the Worker's Compensation Act does not bar third-party claims based upon express contractual indemnity, but we declined to say whether that principle also applies to implied indemnity: "We hold that the Worker's Compensation provisions do not bar third-party claims for indemnity. The trial court, therefore, erred with respect to the general legal principles to be applied to Maddux's motion for summary judgment. As noted previously, the courts of some jurisdictions have based their decisions on the exclusivity issue on the type of indemnity sought. In this case, the parties appear to concede that if Worker's Compensation is not a bar to indemnity based on an express contract, then it is not a bar to claims based on an implied indemnity or on common-law indemnity. As is the case with the issue of contribution, we have, therefore, no occasion in this opinion to decide whether or not causes of action had on implied indemnity or common-law indemnity would be precluded by the Worker's Compensation Act. That inquiry must await a case that squarely presents these last-mentioned issues."