No. 91-195 

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF MONTANA 

1991 

SAMUEL J. GRENZ, 

Plaintiff and Appellant, 

SEP 18 19% V. 

Lk 59Ld JEANETTE STANGL and 

VOCATIONAL RESOURCES, INC., 

,T,.ERK OF SUPREME COUR-1 

‘3 8 ATE OF MONTANA Defendants and Respondents. 

APPEAL FROM: District Court of the Eleventh Judicial District, 

In and for the County of Flathead, 

The Honorable Robert S. Keller, Judge presiding. 

COUNSEL OF RECORD: 

For Appellant: 

Samuel 3. Grenz, Pro Se, Whitefish, Montana 

For Respondents: 

Todd A. Hammer, Warden, Christiansen, 

Johnson & Berg, Kalispell, Montana 

Filed: 

Submitted on Briefs: June 6, 1991 

Decided: September 18, 1991 
Justice William E. Hunt, Sr., delivered the opinion of the Court. 

Samuel J. Grenz, pro se, appeals from a grant of summary 

judgment against him in the District Court for the Eleventh 

Judicial District, Flathead County. We affirm. 

The issue before us is whether the District Court erred in 

granting summary judgment. 

The present appeal before this court is one of many brought by 

appellant arising out of an industrial accident he suffered on 

August 22, 1984. The factual and procedural backgrounds to this 

controversy have been set out in some detail by this Court on a 

number of occasions, most recently in Grenz v. Medical Management 

Northwest, et al., pending Supreme Court Cause No. 91-100. (MMN) 

The present appeal and the companion case of were submitted to 

this Court at the same time and were considered together due to the 

similarity of issues. 

Appellant was injured while at work. At the time of the 

injury appellant's employer was enrolled under Workers' 

Compensation Plan 11. The insurer assumed liability and began to 

pay compensation and medical benefits to the appellant. 

Approximately four years after the appellant's injury, the insurer, 

by way of its attorney, arranged for appellant to undergo a series 

of examinations for the purpose of determining the extent of his 

disability and the feasibility of future employment. 

Participating in this multi-specialty panel examination of the 

appellant were four doctors procured by Medical Management 

2 
Northwest, Inc., and Jeanette Stangl, a vocational consultant 

employed by Vocational Resources, Inc. (VRI). Subsequent to this 

examination, the insurer temporarily reduced appellant's benefits. 

After mediation of appellant's claim, his prior level of benefits 

was retroactively reinstated. 

As a result of the appellant's unhappiness with the conduct 

of the panel members, he brought suit against Medical Management 

Northwest, Inc., and all the doctors involved, alleging conspiracy, 

fraud, bad faith, and professional negligence. For reasons that 

are not clear, the appellant brought a separate suit against the 

vocational consultant and her employer, again alleging conspiracy, 

fraud, bad faith, and professional negligence. In the companion 

case, the District Court granted summary judgment for the doctors 

and MMN. We have affirmed the District Court in that case. 

In the present case, the District Court granted the 

respondents' motions for summary judgment on all the claims. In 

so doing, the District Court relied on the same rationale used in 

the @QI case. We agree that the respondents in the present case 

are similarly situated in regard to the appellants allegations, as 

were the doctors in the companion case, and we therefore, will only 

briefly repeat our discussion in m. 

Appellant failed to bring forward any evidence at all 

concerning either fraud or conspiracy. Likewise, his bad faith 

claim fails in the absence of specific statutory authorization or 

3 
a contract involving a special relationship between the parties. 

Appellant did not offer any evidence of negligence. 

The District Court was correct in finding that no genuine 

issues of material fact existed and that respondents were entitled 

to judgment as a matter of law. 

Affirmed. 

Pursuant to Section I, Paragraph 3(c), Montana Supreme Court 

1988 Internal Operating Rules, this decision shall not be cited as 

precedent and shall be published by its filing as a public document 

with the Clerk of the Supreme Court and by a report of its result 

to Montana Law Week, State Reporter and West Publishing Company. 

We concur: A 

6 hief Justice ,f&p 

4 
September 18, 1991 

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE 

I hereby certify that the following order was sent by United States mail, prepaid, to the 

following named: 

Samuel J. Grenz 

104 Colorado Ave. 

Whitefish, MT 59937 

Todd A. Hammer 

Warden, Christiansen, Johnson & Berg 

P.O. Box 3038 

Kalispell, MT 59903-3038 

ED SMITH 

CLERK OF THE SUPREME COURT 

STATE OF MONTANA