CRIMINAL PROCEDURE Court of Appeals of Alaska (2023) Justin T. Reed In Maxie v. State, 530 P.3d 380 (Alaska Ct. App. 2023) the Alaska Court of Appeals ruled that a jury instruction which fails to comport with judicial precedent is nevertheless insufficient to overturn a conviction where that error would not appreciably affect the resultant Continue Reading »
CRIMINAL PROCEDURE Court of Appeals of Alaska (2023) Allyson Barkley In Larson v. State, No. A-13731, 2023 WL 2783943 (Alaska Ct. App. Apr. 5, 2023), the court of appeals held Alvarez-Perdomo v. State did not create a new rule on admissibility of juror affidavits. (Id. at 1). Loren J. Larson Jr. was convicted of a Continue Reading »
INSURANCE LAW United States Court of Appeals (2023) Catherine Cole In Estate of Wheeler v. Garrison Property & Casualty Insurance Co., 80 F.4th 1006 (9th Cir. 2023), the court of appeals held that certification to the Alaska Supreme Court was warranted to answer whether the scope of the pollution exclusion in a homeowners’ insurance policy 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 »
CRIMINAL LAWCourt of Appeals of Alaska (2022)Flora LipskyIn Ambacher v. State, 521 P.3d 604 (Alaska Ct. App. 2022), the court of appeals held that drivingtwenty to thirty miles per hour above the speed limit and briefly crossing the median did notconstitute a gross deviation from the standard of care a reasonable driver would observe, and,therefore, Continue Reading »
TORT LAWUnited States District Court, District of Alaska (2022)Elza BouhassiraIn Estate of Vinberg v. United States, 2022 WL 11753090 (D. Alaska 2022), the district courtheld that a widow’s claim regarding her husband’s death was not barred by the intentional tortexception of the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). (Id. at 6). Through his widow, a diseasedcivilian’s Continue Reading »
PROPERTY LAWSupreme Court of Alaska (2022)Rachel ReissIn Evertson v. Sibley, 520 P.3d 157 (Alaska 2022), the supreme court held that because a banklacked actual and constructive notice of any adverse interest to a contested property, it was a bonafide lender with priority over other claimants to the property. (Id. at 161–62). In 2004, a sonconveyed Continue Reading »
MARITIME LAWUnited States District Court, District of Alaska (2022)Sarah BrooksIn In re Cargo of the SS Islander, 22 WL 2757372 (D. Alaska 2022), the court held that a thirdparty may intervene in civil cases to access documents when there is a nexus between the case inwhich the third party seeks to intervene and a case Continue Reading »
EVIDENCE LAWUnited States District Court, District of Alaska (2022)Jake ShermanIn Garcia v. Vitus Energy, L.L.C., 600 F. Supp. 3d 975 (D. Alaska 2022), the court held that aparty cannot engage in spoliation by failing to collect relevant evidence, because one cannotspoliate evidence that never existed. (Id. at 982). After suffering injuries while being transportedon the Continue Reading »
MARITIME LAWUnited States District Court, District of AlaskaRobert BulkaIn Maritech Marine Services, LLC v. Bay Welding Services, Inc., 593 F. Supp. 3d 902 (D. Alaska2022), the court held that genuine issues of material fact as to the scope of a maritime contractbetween a vessel owner and a custom boat manufacturer precluded summary judgment. (Id. at909). Continue Reading »
