Five years after her husband was accidentally shot and killed during a bear hunting trip in Canada, a Toutle woman will go to trial this fall against the guide company she blames for his death.
Between 2009 and 2014, avid hunter and Toutle native Jeffrey Cooper made several visits to northern British Columbia through Wistaria Guiding, an unincorporated hunting business specializing in guided hunting trips for moose, bears, mountain goats, wolf, upland birds and fish.
But when a grizzly bear, which Cooper shot and wounded the night before, came charging out of the brush the morning of May 26, 2014, Cooper and two guides reacted instantly and fired, dropping the bear. Cooper, standing in front of one of the guides, was inadvertently struck and killed, according to Canadian court documents.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police pronounced Cooper dead at the scene, RCMP Corporal Madonna Saunderson said. While the case had not been officially closed as of this month, the Canadian government has not pursued criminal charges against any of the guides involved, Saunderson said.
Shirley Cooper filed a lawsuit against Wistaria Guiding owners Gary and Julie Blackwell, as well as employees/hunting guides Derrick Blackwell and Robert Cork, in 2015. Her suit alleged the company was negligent in the death of her husband by, among other claims, failing to properly control the firearms and to ensure the members of the hunting party were not in each other's line of fire. The case is currently set to go to trial Nov. 18 in Vancouver, Canada.
Both Shirley Cooper and a representative for Wistaria Guiding declined to comment when called. An attorney for Wistaria Guiding could not be reached.
Wistaria initially asked for the suit to be dismissed because Cooper had signed a liability waiver for a previous hunting trip the year before, according to Canadian court documents. But a judge ruled the case could go on.
"They were, quite literally, two different hunting seasons," British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Nigel Kent found in late 2017, and "the 2014 hunt required a new hunting licence."
Jeffrey Cooper had participated in two moose hunts with the company in 2009 and 2012 and an unsuccessful grizzly hunt in 2013. He signed a liability release for that 2013 hunt assuming "all risks of personal injury or death ... while participating in the said guided excursion."
At the end of the hunt, Blackwell offered to let Cooper return the next year, free of charge, since Cooper was a good client and he wanted to offer him another chance to hunt a grizzly, according to Canadian court documents.
Cooper was not given another release to sign for that hunt, court documents said. The Blackwells argued there was a mutual assumption that the 2014 hunt was a continuation of the unsuccessful hunt the year before, and that was covered under the previous agreement.
Kent dismissed Wistaria's claim, allowing Cooper's suit to move forward.
