Sandahl v. James A. Slack, Inc.

In my view, the majority has ignored the statutory requirement of determining the average gross earnings, and, by reversing the Workers’ Compensation Court, seemingly has adopted an “earning capacity” test.

It is obvious that in the Montana logging industry, it is not unusual for a truck driver to be paid a percentage of the gross income produced by the vehicle involved. Here, the employer operated a fleet of five trucks, with five drivers. Each driver operated the same truck when logs were available to be hauled to the various mills. Trucks were not rotated among the various drivers, and each…