CIVIL PROCEDURE Supreme Court of Alaska (2023) Olivia Wagner In Highlight Canyon, LLC v. Cioffoletti, 533 P.3d 929 (Alaska 2023), the supreme court held that (1) actions taken after the filing of a motion to dismiss for failure to prosecute do not preclude dismissal, and (2) a substitution of counsel, without more, is not a Continue Reading »
CIVIL PROCEDURE Supreme Court of Alaska (2023) Hannah Berg In Bragg v. Teslow, 533 P.3d 533 (Alaska 2023), the supreme court held that an award of full attorneys’ fees is appropriate only where a claim or motion is “collectively or individually so lacking in merit that it is permissible to infer that [the non-prevailing party] Continue Reading »
CIVIL PROCEDURE United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit Steve Stenquist In Department of Fish and Game v. Federal Subsistence Board, 62 F.4th 1177 (4th Cir. 2023), the court of appeals held that a dispute is not moot if the basis for the dispute ends before the dispute can be fully litigated and said basis Continue Reading »
CIVIL PROCEDURE Supreme Court of Alaska (2023) Shaun Thompson In BBFM Engineers, Inc. v. McDonald, 530 P.3d 352 (Alaska 2023), the supreme court held that pro se status alone was insufficiently compelling to relax the 30-day period to file a motion for relief from judgment. (Id. at 358). McDonald, representing himself, filed an unsigned motion Continue Reading »
CIVIL PROCEDURE Supreme Court of Alaska (2023) Hannah Berg In Buchholdt v. Nelson, 534 P.3d 91 (Alaska 2023), the supreme court held that an unsupported and unsworn assertion made for the first time on appeal is insufficient to demonstrate that a trial court committed legal error or abused its discretion in denying a motion for Continue Reading »
CIVIL PROCEDUREUnited States District Court, District of AlaskaScott AndersonIn National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh v. Aspen Custom Trailers, Inc., 587 F.Supp.3d904 (D. Alaska 2022), the district court held that a non–Alaska company cannot be sued in anAlaska court when its only connection to the state is a contract with an Alaska company that Continue Reading »
CIVIL PROCEDUREUnited States District Court, District of Alaska (2022)Anighya CrockerIn Aspen American Insurance Co. v. Morrow, 2022 WL 17337913 (D. Alaska 2022), the districtcourt applied the Ninth Circuit’s seven–factor test to partially grant a motion for default judgmentagainst a non–participating party. (Id. at *1). The Lyons were a couple who sold a ship to defendantMorrow, Continue Reading »
CIVIL PROCEDURE Supreme Court of Alaska (2022) Rachel Reiss In Triem v. Kake Tribal Corp., 513 P.3d 994 (Alaska 2022), the supreme court held that a former class action representative and former class attorney did not have standing to appeal debt forgiveness motions in a separate but related class action. (Id. at 996). In the Continue Reading »
CIVIL PROCEDURE Court of Appeals of Alaska (2022) Jake Sherman In Ray v. State, 517 P.3d 613 (Alaska Ct. App. 2022), the court of appeals held that the superior court did not err when it ordered a released prisoner who violated his probation to serve additional probation, although the released prisoner explicitly rejected such measures. Continue Reading »
CIVIL PROCEDURE Supreme Court of Alaska (2022) Connor Sakati In Fairbanks North Star Borough v. Victory Ministries of Alaska, Inc., 515 P.3d 111 (Alaska 2022), the supreme court held that a court no longer has subject matter jurisdiction when the court closes the initial case and another case based on the same underlying controversy begins. (Id. Continue Reading »