Williams v. Glacier Park Co.

• Citation: 373 P.2d 517,140 Mont. 440
• Decision Date: 10 July 1962
• Docket Number: No. 10414,10414
• Parties: Joseph L. WILLIAMS, Jr., Plaintiff and Respondent, v. GLACIER PARK COMPANY, Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Montana

Page 517

373 P.2d 517

140 Mont. 440

Joseph L. WILLIAMS, Jr., Plaintiff and Respondent, v. GLACIER PARK COMPANY, Defendant and Appellant.

No. 10414.

Supreme Court of Montana.

July 10, 1962.

Anderson & Anderson, Ralph J. Anderson (appeared), Helena, Stanley P. Sorenson (argued orally), Helena, for appellant.

Rockwood & Sykes, Kalispell, Forrest C. Rockwood (argued orally), Kalispell, for respondent.

CASTLES, Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the district court of the ninth judicial district, in and for the County of Glacier, reversing a decision of the Montana Industrial Accident Board. The action is to recover workmen's compensation for injuries resulting from a mauling by a grizzly bear in Glacier National Park.

Glacier National Park is a Federally owned recreation area situated within the borders of the State of Montana. The trails, campgrounds, roads and other things necessary for access to the Park's natural surroundings are the responsibility of the National Park Service. The employer, Glacier Park Company, at the time of the accident, owned and operated hotels and motels in the Park on a concession from the Federal Government. With two exceptions the various hotels and motels are the property of the Company. This includes the buildings comprising the various establishments but not the land.

The claimant, Joseph L. Williams and a friend, intending to go to Alaska to find summer employment, found that they could not enter Canada for lack of sufficient funds so they proceeded to Glacier Park. They entered the Park by paying their entrance fee and there spent the night of June 17, 1959, camping out.

On the next day, June 18, 1959, they decided to seek summer employment in the Park. They were interviewed for this purpose by Eugene Laitela, the Director of Personnel for the Glacier Park Company. During the interview Mr. Laitela told the boys about the animals in the Park, the various recreational aspects of working in the Park, and opportunities to take hikes and trips. From the interview and a later talk with the manager of the motel where he was to work, claimant understood that he would be expected to help out in any way he could if conditions were crowded or his services were needed even when he was technically off duty. The boys signed employment contracts, and they were employed for service at Swift Current Motel. That afternoon claimant and his friend went to the motel and were told by the manager of the motel that their work would be that of waiters at a wage of $45 a month plus tips and board and room. They were given their evening meal and were assigned to a room in the employees' dormitory.

That evening claimant and another of the young employees, one Bob Winter, decided to go for a hike on Mt. Altyn which lies northerly of the motel. It was during this hike that the boys encountered a grizzly bear which, without provocation, severely mauled claimant. Now claimant seeks to recover workmen's compensation for injuries suffered in the encounter.

The Industrial Accident Board found that the injury occurred away from the employer's premises while the claimant was on personal recreation not connected with his activities as an employee and not incidental to nor required by his employment. From this the Board concluded as a matter of law that the claimant's injury did not arise out of nor was it in the course of his employment.

The decision of the Board was appealed to the district court. The district court did not take further evidence and on the basis of the record set aside the Board's findings that the injury occurred off the employer's premises while the claimant was on personal recreation not connected with his activities as an employee and not incidental to nor required by his employment. The conclusion of the Board that claimant's injury did not arise out of nor was it in the course of his employment was also set aside. The district court then found that the injury occurred while the claimant was on personal recreation contemplated by his employment and concluded that the injury arose out of and in the course of his employment.

The sole question presented by appellant's six specifications of error is whether the district court erred in concluding that claimant's injury arose out of and in the course of his employment.

In Wiggins v. Industrial Accident Board, 54 Mont. 335 at 342, 170 P. 9, L.R.A.1918F, 932, this court said: 'The words 'out of' point to the origin or cause of the accident and are descriptive of the relation which the injury bears to the employment. * * * if, by reason of the nature of the employment itself or the particular conditions under which the employment is pursued, the workman is exposed to a hazard peculiar to the employment under the circumstances, and injury results by reason of such exposure, then it may be said fairly that the injury arises out of the employment, or, stated in different terms, the workman must have been exposed by his employment to more than the normal risk to which the people of the community generally are subject, in order that his injury can be said to arise out of his employment.'

In Saily v. 500 Bushel Club, 332 Mich. 286, 50 N.W.2d 781, an action was brought to recover workmen's compensation for injuries sustained by one employed by a club to set tables and wash dishes before and after each meal. The employee was attacked by a deer while walking in woods surrounding the club lodge. The employee was off duty and at liberty to leave the...