Alaska Supreme Court Decisions 2022
Date: December 30, 2022
Docket Number: S-18123
Justia Opinion Summary: A child was severely injured while in his father’s care. The father did not immediately seek medical help and gave conflicting explanations of how his son’s injury occurred. An Alaska superior court found probable cause…
Date: December 30, 2022
Docket Number: S-18442
Justia Opinion Summary: A special election was scheduled to fill Alaska’s vacant seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Due to time constraints the election was conducted entirely by mail. The Division of Elections created an online ballot…
Date: December 28, 2022
Docket Number: S-18089
Date: December 23, 2022
Docket Number: S-17958
Justia Opinion Summary: An elementary school nurse who unsuccessfully attempted to save the life of a choking child sought workers’ compensation benefits for mental health problems she attributed to the incident. She argued that she suffered…
Date: December 21, 2022
Docket Number: S-18358
Date: December 16, 2022
Docket Number: S-18041
Justia Opinion Summary: A landlord leased a commercial building to two tenants who operated an automotive repair business on the property. The landlord refused to adhere to provisions in the lease requiring him to maintain and repair the…
Date: December 14, 2022
Docket Number: S-18062
Date: December 9, 2022
Docket Number: S-18051
Justia Opinion Summary: Department of Corrections (DOC) officers charged a prisoner with conduct or language likely to interfere with the institution’s orderly administration and security. Following a hearing, a DOC hearing officer imposed a…
Date: December 7, 2022
Docket Number: S-17786
Date: December 7, 2022
Docket Number: S-17827
Date: November 30, 2022
Docket Number: S-18008
Date: November 30, 2022
Docket Number: S-18297
Date: November 23, 2022
Docket Number: S-18248
Date: November 18, 2022
Docket Number: S-17791
Justia Opinion Summary: A mother, son, and daughter conveyed real property among themselves by competing deeds. The daughter used the property as security for two bank loans and defaulted on the second one; when the bank attempted foreclosure,…
Date: November 18, 2022
Docket Number: S-17792
Justia Opinion Summary: This case presented the questions of whether and how Alaska Statute 09.55.548(b) applied when the claimant’s losses were compensated by an employer’s self-funded health benefit plan governed by the federal Employee…
Date: November 16, 2022
Docket Number: S-18204
Date: November 16, 2022
Docket Number: S-18280
Date: November 9, 2022
Docket Number: S-17962
Date: October 28, 2022
Docket Number: S-18112
Justia Opinion Summary: The Alaska Department of Corrections’s Parole Board denied inmate Donald McDonald’s discretionary parole application; he subsequently sought injunctive relief against the Department, the Board, and the Department’s…
Date: October 26, 2022
Docket Number: s-57
Date: October 21, 2022
Docket Number: S-18210
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2020 Alaska voters approved, by a slim margin, a ballot initiative that made sweeping changes to Alaska’s system of elections. The changes included replacing the system of political party primary elections with a…
Date: October 19, 2022
Docket Number: S-18031
Date: October 14, 2022
Docket Number: S-17835
Justia Opinion Summary: A couple separated after three years of marriage. They had a son who was later diagnosed with several mental disabilities. The father paid child support until the son turned 19; when the son was in his twenties the…
Date: October 14, 2022
Docket Number: S-18006
Date: October 14, 2022
Docket Number: S-18015
Justia Opinion Summary: A woman filed a petition to terminate the parental rights of the father of her child because the child was conceived as a result of sexual abuse. After years of litigation, including a previous appeal, the superior court…
Date: October 14, 2022
Docket Number: S-18090
Justia Opinion Summary: Two tribes claimed to be a child’s tribe for purposes of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA): The Native Village of Wales claimed the child was a tribal member; the Native Village of Chignik Lagoon claims that the child…
Date: October 7, 2022
Docket Number: S-17918
Justia Opinion Summary: The Alaska Workers’ Compensation Board decided that a carpenter who admitted using alcohol and cocaine before his injury had a compensable disability because it determined the accident would have happened regardless of…
Date: October 5, 2022
Docket Numbers: s-6, S-6
Date: September 30, 2022
Docket Number: S-18038
Justia Opinion Summary: Attorney David Graham represented Sandra Rusch and Brenda Dockter in separate proceedings against the same employer before the Alaska Workers’ Compensation Board. Rusch injured her back working for the Southeast Alaska…
Date: September 30, 2022
Docket Number: S-18333
Justia Opinion Summary: The Alaska Legislature created and funded the Higher Education Investment Fund (HEIF) to provide annual grants and scholarships to students pursuing post-secondary education in Alaska. The HEIF later was identified as…
Date: September 23, 2022
Docket Number: S-17840
Justia Opinion Summary: A corporate shareholder alleged the corporation violated his statutory right to inspect certain records and documents. The superior court found that the shareholder did not assert a proper purpose in his request. The…
Date: September 16, 2022
Docket Number: S-17496
Justia Opinion Summary: The State of Alaska claimed the right under Revised Statute 2477 (RS 2477) to clear land and permit the use of boat launches, camping sites, and day use sites within an alleged 100-foot right of way centered on a road on…
Date: September 16, 2022
Docket Number: S-17853
Justia Opinion Summary: The City and Borough of Sitka, Alaska allowed an independent nonprofit organization to host a public event at a city facility. The nonprofit organization arranged for a volunteer to hang decorations in the facility; a…
Date: September 16, 2022
Docket Number: S-17884
Justia Opinion Summary: An Alaska superior court ordered a landowner to temporarily remove a tourist railway it had built across an easement on his land to allow the easement holder to build a paved road capable of dedication as a public…
Date: September 16, 2022
Docket Number: S-18023
Justia Opinion Summary: Jennifer Monegan was the birth mother of a child born in 2011, and Scout Monegan was the child’s adoptive father. Gregory and Julie Husby were the child’s maternal grandparents and lived in Oregon. Jennifer and her child…
Date: September 7, 2022
Docket Number: S-17937
Date: September 2, 2022
Docket Number: S-17892
Justia Opinion Summary: The Alaska Department of Corrections (DOC) allows some inmates to serve a portion of their prison sentence outside a correctional facility while wearing electronic monitoring equipment. This case presented a…
Date: August 31, 2022
Docket Number: S-18152
Date: August 31, 2022
Docket Number: S-18241
Date: August 31, 2022
Docket Number: S-18252
Date: August 31, 2022
Docket Number: S-18273
Date: August 24, 2022
Docket Number: S-18186
Date: August 17, 2022
Docket Number: S-17994
Date: August 12, 2022
Docket Numbers: a-6, A-6
Justia Opinion Summary: The Alaska Supreme Court granted the Office of Public Advocacy’s (OPA) petition for review of whether counsel provided through Alaska Legal Service Corporation’s (ALSC) pro bono program was counsel “provided by a public…
Date: August 12, 2022
Citation: 514 P.3d 1263
Docket Number: S-17874
Justia Opinion Summary: The dispute that arose in this case concerned an easement that lead from the Glenn Highway over residential property to a parcel of land used as a jumping-off point for a Matanuska Glacier tourism business. After years…
Date: August 12, 2022
Citation: 514 P.3d 1250
Docket Number: S-17955
Justia Opinion Summary: A nonprofit entity representing commercial fishers sued the Alaska Board of Fisheries and the Department of Fish and Game, alleging that the State’s fishery management practices in Cook Inlet were unjustified and…
Date: August 12, 2022
Citation: 515 P.3d 111
Docket Number: S-17982
Justia Opinion Summary: The Fairbanks North Star Borough partially revoked a local ministry’s charitable property tax exemption after learning that the ministry was renting lodging to the general public. The ministry appealed the Borough’s…
Date: August 12, 2022
Docket Number: S-18056
Justia Opinion Summary: Orville Jenkins appealed a superior court’s division of property following his divorce. The Alaska Supreme Court rejected his arguments that the superior court: (1) improperly denied his motion to continue trial; (2)…
Date: August 12, 2022
Citations: 314 P.3d 508, 425 P.3d 80, 485 P.3d 1010, 515 P.3d 117
Docket Number: s-6
Justia Opinion Summary: The Alaska Legislature passed a bill in 2018 that appropriated money for public education spending for both FY2019, and FY2020. The second appropriation had a 2019 effective date. Governor Mike Dunleavy took office in…
Date: August 5, 2022
Citation: 514 P.3d 893
Docket Number: S-17883
Justia Opinion Summary: The Alaska Department of Revenue audited a non-resident corporation doing business in Alaska. The Department issued a deficiency assessment based in part on an Alaska tax statute requiring an income tax return to include…
Date: August 3, 2022
Docket Number: S-17812
Date: July 29, 2022
Citation: 514 P.3d 283
Docket Number: S-17974
Justia Opinion Summary: A married couple with two children legally separated. They agreed the father would pay the mother child support while they lived at separate residences and alternated custody of the children. This arrangement was…
Date: July 27, 2022
Docket Number: S-17940
Date: July 22, 2022
Citation: 513 P.3d 999
Docket Number: A-57
Justia Opinion Summary: In two separate cases, an Alaska superior court decided that it could not terminate parental rights to children with alleged Indian heritage without cultural expert testimony, and that the cultural expert testimony…
Date: July 22, 2022
Citation: 513 P.3d 1046
Docket Number: S-17411
Justia Opinion Summary: A drunk driver lost control of his truck on a wet roadway and struck and killed two teenage girls. The driver pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder with a sentencing range of 13 to 20 years for each count.…
Date: July 22, 2022
Citation: 513 P.3d 1026
Docket Number: S-17645
Justia Opinion Summary: In Henry v. Alaska, the court of appeals held that a defendant who entered a plea agreement providing for a specific period of probation has the right, when being sentenced for a subsequent probation violation, to reject…
Date: July 22, 2022
Citation: 513 P.3d 1019
Docket Number: S-17810
Justia Opinion Summary: A man appealed superior court orders authorizing his commitment for mental health treatment and the involuntary administration of psychotropic medication, arguing the superior court relied on erroneous facts to find that…
Date: July 20, 2022
Docket Number: S-17783
Date: July 20, 2022
Docket Numbers: s-3, S-3
Date: July 15, 2022
Citation: 513 P.3d 245
Docket Number: S-17560
Justia Opinion Summary: A divorcing couple settled their property dispute by executing a settlement agreement that included a litigation waiver. The superior court accepted the settlement five months later. The former wife subsequently sued her…
Date: July 15, 2022
Citation: 513 P.3d 253
Docket Number: S-17774
Justia Opinion Summary: A general contractor hired a subcontractor to provide material for a project at a state park. After the project was completed, the general contractor sent the subcontractor a check described as “final payment.” The…
Date: July 15, 2022
Citation: 513 P.3d 264
Docket Number: S-17873
Justia Opinion Summary: A limited liability company (LLC) member sold his interest to another LLC member as part of a settlement agreement, under which funds were to be paid to the selling member and his attorneys. A judgment creditor of the…
Date: July 13, 2022
Docket Number: S-17398
Date: June 24, 2022
Citation: 512 P.3d 665
Docket Number: S-17555
Justia Opinion Summary: A defendant convicted of first-degree murder appealed his conviction to the Alaska court of appeals, arguing that the trial court erroneously instructed the jury on the law of self-defense. The court of appeals agreed…
Date: June 24, 2022
Citation: 512 P.3d 655
Docket Number: S-17769
Justia Opinion Summary: A man filed suit against a former romantic partner to resolve disputes about property acquired during their relationship. The superior court ruled the parties had been in a domestic partnership (a marriage-like…
Date: June 22, 2022
Docket Number: S-18160
Date: June 15, 2022
Docket Number: S-17594
Date: June 10, 2022
Citation: 511 P.3d 553
Docket Number: S-18049
Justia Opinion Summary: The superior court terminated a mother’s parental rights to her two children. Because the children were Indian children under the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), the Office of Children’s Services (OCS) was required to…
Date: June 8, 2022
Docket Numbers: 7903, S-7, s-7
Date: June 8, 2022
Docket Number: S-18069
Date: June 8, 2022
Docket Number: S-18150
Date: May 27, 2022
Citation: 510 P.3d 486
Docket Number: S-17912
Justia Opinion Summary: A man appealed a superior court order authorizing his civil commitment, arguing: (1) the order should have been vacated because the petition for commitment was not “signed by two mental health professionals,” as required…
Date: May 27, 2022
Citation: 510 P.3d 476
Docket Number: S-18027
Justia Opinion Summary: Ryan Poole and Laramie Rainer had a child in June 2013. Poole and Rainer’s relationship ended in late 2013. Poole was incarcerated from March 2013 to October 2014. In December 2013, when the child was six months old and…
Date: May 20, 2022
Citation: 509 P.3d 1014
Docket Number: S-17743
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2019 a woman sued her former husband’s medical provider, alleging that from 2003 to 2010 the provider negligently prescribed the husband opioid medications, leading to his addiction, damage to the couple’s business…
Date: May 20, 2022
Citation: 511 P.3d 193
Docket Number: S-17866
Justia Opinion Summary: A miner signed a 20-year lease with a corporate landowner for an easement allowing him access to his limestone-mining operation. The lease included an option to extend it for up to three additional 10-year terms as long…
Date: May 18, 2022
Docket Number: S-17991
Date: May 18, 2022
Docket Number: S-17994
Date: May 18, 2022
Docket Number: S-18028
Date: May 13, 2022
Docket Number: S-17878
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant Raymond Dapo filed suit against his adoptive mother for sexual abuse that allegedly occurred 13 years earlier. He then agreed to release the adoptive mother from liability in exchange for her filing a…
Date: May 11, 2022
Docket Number: S-18151
Date: May 6, 2022
Docket Number: a-78
Justia Opinion Summary: An Alaska citizen filed an application to recall a member of the Anchorage Assembly, alleging that the assembly member had committed misconduct in office by participating in an indoor gathering of more than 15 people in…
Date: May 4, 2022
Docket Number: S-17824
Date: May 4, 2022
Docket Number: S-17927
Date: April 20, 2022
Docket Number: S-18147
Date: April 15, 2022
Docket Number: S-17802
Justia Opinion Summary: A boiler exploded in a home owned by a nonprofit regional housing authority, severely injuring a man who lived there. He sued the housing authority in both contract and tort, claiming that his lease-purchase contract…
Date: April 15, 2022
Docket Number: S-17876
Justia Opinion Summary: The superior court determined that the marital estate should be divided 60/40 in the husband’s favor because of his lower earning potential. But the court then considered the husband’s sale of the marital home:…
Date: April 13, 2022
Docket Number: S-17984
Date: April 8, 2022
Docket Number: a-5
Justia Opinion Summary: A construction company filed an administrative appeal of a final agency decision that a renovation project on a State-leased office building fell under a wage statute for public construction projects. During enforcement…
Date: April 1, 2022
Citation: 507 P.3d 49
Docket Number: S-17805
Justia Opinion Summary: A winning candidate for a seat on the board of directors of an Alaska Native Corporation declined to sign the corporation’s confidentiality agreement and code of conduct. When the corporation denied him a seat on the…
Date: March 25, 2022
Docket Number: S-17948
Justia Opinion Summary: John Morris appealed the division of marital property in his divorce from Andrea Morris. He argued the superior court erred by: (1) crediting the opposing expert’s valuation of certain marital property; (2) refusing to…
Date: March 23, 2022
Citations: 289 P.3d 924, 353 P.3d 799, 424 P.3d 365, 436 P.3d 1009, 490 P.3d 357
Docket Numbers: a-6, A-6
Date: March 23, 2022
Docket Number: S-18115
Date: March 16, 2022
Docket Number: S-18055
Date: March 9, 2022
Docket Number: S-18085
Date: March 9, 2022
Docket Number: S-18116
Date: March 4, 2022
Citation: 505 P.3d 224
Docket Number: S-17977
Justia Opinion Summary: A divorcing couple’s property settlement agreement required the husband to pay the wife $1,200 per month from the non-disability portion of the husband’s military retirement. The agreement also provided that if the…
Date: March 4, 2022
Docket Number: S-18052
Justia Opinion Summary: A maternal aunt and uncle sought to adopt a child over the father’s objection; after finding that the father’s consent was required, the superior court dismissed the adoption petition. The aunt and uncle contended the…
Date: March 2, 2022
Docket Number: S-18034
Date: March 2, 2022
Docket Number: S-18110
Date: February 16, 2022
Docket Number: S-18073
Date: February 9, 2022
Docket Number: S-17690
Date: February 9, 2022
Docket Number: S-17836
Date: February 4, 2022
Docket Number: S-17897
Justia Opinion Summary: The parties to this appeal disputed the sequence for applying the provisions when calculating compensation for injured employees; another provision applied a cost-of-living ratio only to out-of-state recipients. Richard…
Date: January 28, 2022
Docket Number: S-17297
Justia Opinion Summary: A number of young Alaskans — including several Alaska Natives — sued the State, alleging that its resource development was contributing to climate change and adversely affecting their lives. They sought declaratory and…
Date: January 28, 2022
Docket Number: S-17816
Justia Opinion Summary: The Alaska lieutenant governor refused to certify an application for a ballot initiative, and the group backing the initiative filed suit. In a court-approved stipulation, the Division of Elections agreed to print the…
Date: January 26, 2022
Docket Number: S-17924
Date: January 21, 2022
Citations: 323 P.3d 30, 370 P.3d 1101, 433 P.3d 1182, 460 P.3d 1220, 468 P.3d 721
Docket Number: a-5
Justia Opinion Summary: The State redesigned the dental insurance plan offered to public retirees in 2014, narrowing coverage but also decreasing premiums paid by retirees. The Retired Public Employees of Alaska challenged the redesign. After a…
Date: January 21, 2022
Docket Number: S-17464
Justia Opinion Summary: After Lauren Bridges’ daughter S.B. was born severely disabled, Bridges sued the many healthcare providers involved in S.B.’s birth. When Bridges’s attorneys failed to timely oppose the defendants’ motions for summary…
Date: January 21, 2022
Citation: 504 P.3d 910
Docket Number: S-17691
Justia Opinion Summary: Ramsey Barton sued the City of Valdez after she was severely injured by falling from a tire swing overhanging a cliff in an undeveloped area of a city park. The swing was not built by the City, and Barton alleged the…
Date: January 19, 2022
Docket Number: S-17933
Date: January 14, 2022
Citation: 502 P.3d 13
Docket Number: S-17520
Justia Opinion Summary: A patient sued a hospital after learning that a hospital employee intentionally disclosed the patient’s health information in violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The patient…
Date: January 14, 2022
Citation: 502 P.3d 5
Docket Number: S-17798
Justia Opinion Summary: A mother no longer wished to serve as her adult daughter’s guardian due to fear of her daughter’s violence. The superior court held a hearing to determine whether to allow the mother to resign and appoint a public…
Date: January 12, 2022
Docket Number: S-17770
Date: January 5, 2022
Docket Number: S-18040
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