Court Opinion

ID: 9511075
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:01:44.456892+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:08:10.336166
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE RICE
specially concurring.
¶37 I concur with the Court’s holding that Mark Matthews was not *451exempted from workers’ compensation coverage, and benefits thereunder, by the Certificate of Independent Contractor Exemption issued to him by the Department. I do so on the basis of the reasoning set forth in my concurring and dissenting opinion in Wild v. Fregein Construction, 2003 MT 115, 315 Mont. 425, 68 P.3d 855. However, as I did there, I dissent from the Court’s statutory interpretation, because it renders § 39-71-401(3), MCA, meaningless. An employer should be able to rely upon the Department’s properly issued exemption, without an obligation to independently determine whether the exemption-holder meets the statutory criteria set forth in § 39-71-120, MCA. Otherwise, the exemption, and the application process envisioned by the statute, accomplish nothing.
CHIEF JUSTICE GRAY joins in the concurring opinion of JUSTICE RICE.