Protest Upon Worker's Compensation Claim of Carson v. Wyoming State Penitentiary

URBIGKIT, Justice.

Can the trial court, in awarding Worker’s Compensation benefits for an inmate injured at a confinement institution, offset benefits paid against maintenance costs at the institution?

This issue is here following the trial court’s denial of a Rule 60(b), W.R.C.P. motion, which we now reverse.1

FACTS

Claimant Gary Carson, while incarcerated at the Wyoming State Penitentiary, claimed that a back injury occurred in December, 1984, while shoveling snow at the institution. A Worker’s Compensation claim followed, answered by a penitentiary protest that Carson’s injury resulted from…