Olson v. Manion’s Inc.
Montana Supreme Court
510 P.2d 6 (1973)
- Written by Serena Lipski, JD
Facts
Duane Olson (plaintiff) suffered a workplace accident on January 23, 1962. At the time of his injury, Olson worked for Manion’s Inc. (defendant) and earned $2.60 per hour. Olson was awarded temporary total-disability compensation. In 1967 the Industrial Accident Board (the board) awarded Olson permanent partial disability. In 1972 the district court affirmed the board’s refusal to admit Olson’s evidence of the impairment in his earning capacity, finding that evidence of impairment of earning capacity was without legal effect. Olson had attempted to present evidence that although he earned $2.60 per hour in 1962, the same job at Manion’s in 1972 paid $4.60 per hour, and Olson was only making $3.80 per hour at his current job with another employer. The Montana statute on permanent partial disability provided that the compensation to be awarded was a percentage of the difference between an employee’s wages at the time of the injury and the amount of wages the employee could earn thereafter. Olson appealed, arguing that the court’s interpretation of the statute did not consider the effect of inflation or parity.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Daly, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 834,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,600 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
