Ali M. Shire v. Rosemount, Inc., Self-Insured/Berkley Risk Administrators Company, LLC, Relators, and Twin Cities Orthopedics, P.A., Crosstown Surgery Center, and Minnesota Department of Human Services/BRS, Intervenors.

The word “voluntary,”- as used in the voluntary-recreational-program exception, Minn.Stat. § 176.021, stibd. 9 (2014), is unambiguous and has one reasonable plain meaning. But that reasonable plain meaning is not followed by the court’s decision. Under the court’s definition, a program is “voluntary” only if it is attended “willingly and without constraint or expectation of reward.” And as applied by the court, the alternatives to program attendance provided by Rosemount — taking paid leave or unpaid leave — are “constraints” on “pay or benefits” such that attendance is involuntary. This is…