Posted on 03/24/2011 12:13:50 PM PDT by skeptoid
KALISPELL, Mont. — The Montana Supreme Court has upheld a Workers' Compensation Court ruling that about $65,000 in medical bills incurred by a man who was mauled while feeding the bears at a tourist attraction should be covered by workers' compensation, despite the fact the man had smoked marijuana on the day of the attack.
(Excerpt) Read more at grandforksherald.com ...
He should have done what Jimmy Buffett did in “God’s Own Drunk.” Let the bear have the still or in this case, the joint.
I’m God’s own drunk and a fearless man!
We live up on the Yukon at Eagle, near the border. This one local guy had been married to local Indian girl when he was young. They built a cabin across the river on land the Indians gave them, had a few kids; happy as a man could be; then his Indian wife went back to her people and the booze and his world fell apart. So anyway, when he'd get down about life, he'd run his boat across the river, walk up the bank to their old cabin, burn a joint, and think about happier times. So this one time he walked up the bank with his dog & rifle, sat down, smoked his joint. Soon as he was high as heck, here comes this momma grizz with 2 big cubs and she wasn't playin around. He shot her like 3 times and didn't have anymore shells with him. The cubs kept circling him and his dog was barking at the bears and the cubs knew their momma was dead and didn't like it. My buddy said his dog is what kept those almost grown cubs from killing him and after a few minutes the cubs lost their bluster & wandered off into the brush. He said being high off smoking that pot and have a life threatening situation happen was too freaky for him, ha ha. To hear him tell the story is a good time; true story too.
Was the Breck Hair Girl involved in this case?
What a buzzkill huh?
35 years out of college and I STILL know all of that song by heart! (Well, I might have to listen to it again one of these days just to make sure!)
Hold muh bear and watch this....
Ain`t that the truth,he lost that high real quick
About 20 yards...but my guide had dropped me on a little island with a brush blind, and he was wading away, pushing the boat to hide it. He had his back to the bear when it came outta the woods, so he never saw it. You're not supposed to shoot unless the guide gives the ok, but the bear was walking very fast right at the guide, I had to decide if I wanted to play by the rules, or risk getting the guide mauled, so I shot it, looking for a spine shot.
He dropped in his tracks, but was roaring REALLY loud...the guide hollered "WTF did you just do?" I said I'd just dropped a bear, & he said "shoot him again". I replied "all I can see is his ass".."so shoot him in the ass".
I shot him again, but with little effect, he said "keep shooting", I said "if you want him shot more, you shoot him". (I was in a VERY muddy area, couldn't move to get a better angle, but the guide could.) So he shot him 3 more times before he expired.
The guide was a young guy, already skittish from an event on previous hunt, so I never did tell him the full story, nothing worse than a gun-shy dog or a bear-shy guide.
Spent seven weeks in Alaska, had a terrific trip. Everybody should see it at least once.
I'm thinking this aspect will be cited even though . . . Hopkins fed the bears that day after Kilpatrick told him not to because he was tapering their food as they prepared for hibernation, Kilpatrick said.
If the owner did tell Hopkins not to feed the bear and the Hopkins got loaded and did it anyway, was that not literally 'willful misconduct'?
I'm glad the guy got stitched back together, but I can't help but think this will be precedence for "the pot made him do it and there's nothing wrong with that" defence.
(At this point it may be obvious that I lack any legal training whatsoever, but that won't stop me from arguing.)
I instantly thoght of Rush saying KMA used to be WTF (winning the future).
. . . and you could argue that it was causation (i.e. if he'd followed directions he wouldn't have been inside the enclosure to get mauled).
On the other hand, the court's observation that 'bears are equal opportunity maulers' indicates that they found no causation from the misconduct of pot smoking.
This is why I never practiced workers' comp law. It's like another universe.
"Where the hell are all the Mallomars?"
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