Kenneth Newman attempted to recover allegedly unpaid overtime wages. He claimed that he was implicitly an employee of Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. Plains classified him as an independent contractor.

In fact, Newman had only signed an employment agreement with Cypress Energy Management-TIR, LLC.

In other words, the defendant Plains All American Pipeline was not a signatory to Newman’s employment contract. At trial, the question arose as to whether Newman was a creditor beneficiary to the contract between Plains All American Pipeline and Cypress Energy Management. Newman argued that his employment agreement with Cypress would be for the benefit of Plains. Was Newman a creditor beneficiary or did he only benefit incidentally by the performance of the contract between Plains All American Pipeline and Cypress?