This article in the Seattle Times prompted some discussion around the office here at MCN. The article notes a dispute over whether the injured man was an employee of Great Bear Adventures (where the incident took place) and therefore eligible for workers’ compensation.

Great Bear Adventures’ owner Russell Kilpatrick, who did not have workers’ compensation coverage, argued that man in question was a volunteer whom Kilpatrick occasionally gave cash to “out of his heart.”  However, the Montana Supreme Court ruled otherwise.

And workplace discussions also focused on the larger question of, well,basic stupidity: in their ruling last June the Workers’ Compensation Court noted that the man’s  “use of marijuana to kick off a day of working around grizzly bears was ill-advised to say the least and mind-bogglingly stupid to say the most.” Read more…