Court Dodges Constitutional Challenge to Adequacy of Statutory Formula for Death Benefits

The Montana Workers' Compensation Court ducked an argument by a worker's widow that her death benefit was so paltry as to undermine the grand bargain underlying the workers' compensation system and found that the Montana State Fund had properly applied the unambiguous statutory formula for calculating death benefits in determining its admitted liability to the widow. Case: Hegg v. Montana State Fund, No. 2016-3730, 10/10/2016, published. Facts: Thomas Hegg worked for Oak Creations for 15 years prior to his death in January 2015. After his death, Hegg's widow filed a claim fo...