TORT LAW Supreme Court of Alaska (2022) Rachel Reiss In Sulzbach v. City & Borough of Sitka, 517 P.3d 7 (Alaska 2022), the supreme court held that the City and a nonprofit volunteer were not liable for an accident that injured an event dancer. (Id. at 10). An independent nonprofit organization planned to host an Continue Reading »
TORT LAW Margot Graham In Punches v. McCarrey Glen Apartments, LLC, 480 P.3d 612 (Alaska 2021), the supreme court held that expert testimony is necessary to demonstrate personal injury from mold exposure and a tenant must make out a prima facie case that the property management company breached the habitability provision of the lease before Continue Reading »
TORT LAW Matthew Naiman In McCormick v. Chippewa, Inc., the supreme court held that the superior court did not abuse its discretion when it limited discovery to documents created in the time period surrounding the settlement agreement in question. In 2007, McCormick was injured while working on a vessel owned by Chippewa, Inc. After learning Continue Reading »
TORT LAW Andrew Webb Sampson v. Alaskan Airlines, Inc. In Sampson v. Alaskan Airlines, Inc., 467 P.3d 1072 (Alaska 2020), the supreme court held that a special verdict form requiring proof by a “reasonable degree of certainty,” instead of the correct standard of “reasonably probable,” did not constitute plain error. (Id. at 1075). After Sampson Continue Reading »
In Adkins v. Collens,[1] the supreme court held that conduct is exempt from Alaska’s Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Act (UTPA) when it is the subject of ongoing, careful regulation and such regulation prohibits the conduct in question. Collens, a quadriplegic, contracted with Maxim, a healthcare corporation, to provide his in-home nursing care. Several Continue Reading »
In Bravo v. Aker,[1] the supreme court held that a next friend cannot represent a presumedly incompetent individual without counsel. Almost 20 years before the present litigation concerning a personal injury claim, appellant Helen Bravo was hurt in a boating accident. Bravo claimed this accident – which was allegedly due to appellees’ conduct – caused Continue Reading »
In Doan v. Banner Health, Inc.,[1] the supreme court held that a viable bystander claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress (NIED) does not require the plaintiff’s contemporaneous realization that the injuries they observed were negligently caused. Doan accompanied her ill daughter to the hospital. While at the hospital, Doan was directed to leave her Continue Reading »
In Haight v. City & Borough of Juneau,[1] the supreme court held that the municipal’s decision not to regulate safety requirement for a lake was not a waiver of sovereign immunity. Haight sued the City of Juneau for the wrongful death of her daughter after she died from a boating accident that occurred on Auke Continue Reading »
In Weston v. AKHappytime, LLC,[1] the Alaskan Supreme court held undiscounted medical bills are admissible at trial. Weston slipped and fell on ice in the parking lot of a hotel owned by AKHappytime, fracturing her right wrist and leg in the process. Her hospital bills totaled up to over $135,000, but Medicare settled the bills Continue Reading »
