OPINION BOLGER , Justice . I. INTRODUCTION Stacey Graham pleaded guilty to second-degree murder after striking and killing two pedestrians while driving intoxicated. He is now being sued by the victims' families. Graham, who is currently appealing his sentence, argues that he may assert the privilege against self-incrimination in response to the families' discovery requests based on (1) his sentence appeal and (2) the possibility that he might file an application for post-conviction...
OPINION BOLGER , Justice . I. INTRODUCTION Alaska's medical peer review privilege statute, AS 18.23.030, protects discovery of data, information, proceedings, and records of medical peer review organizations, but it does not protect a witness's personal knowledge and observations or materials originating outside the medical peer review process. A hospital invoked the privilege in two separate actions, one involving a wrongful death suit against a physician at the hospital and the other...
OPINION WINFREE , Justice . I. INTRODUCTION A man appeals a long-term domestic violence protective order entered against him for stalking his ex-wife. He argues that the superior court: (1) abused its discretion and violated his due process rights in its treatment of his ten-year-old son's proposed testimony; (2) violated the doctrine of ripeness by warning that future conduct could justify a stalking finding; (3) violated the doctrine of res judicata by reconsidering a claim that it...
OPINION CARNEY , Justice . I. INTRODUCTION A woman sued her former employer for unpaid compensation, naming the company and both of its owners as defendants. One of the owners died while the suit was pending, and the former employee substituted the owner's estate in the proceedings. Judgment was eventually entered in favor of the former employee. A year later the deceased owner's widow moved for relief from the judgment as the sole beneficiary of his estate, arguing that neither her...
OPINION WINFREE , Justice . I. INTRODUCTION We granted this petition for review to consider how the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) — establishing medical privacy standards with specific exceptions — affected our personal injury case law allowing a defendant ex parte contact with a plaintiff's doctors as a method of informal discovery. We requested that the parties specifically brief whether the federal law preempted our case law, or, if not,...
OPINION BOLGER , Justice . I. INTRODUCTION The superior court issued a decree divorcing Terrace L. Solomon and Wendy D. Barnes (formerly Solomon) and reserving custody of the parties' children to be decided at a later trial. Before the custody trial could be held, Terrace was arrested and held in a United States Army prison outside Alaska. The superior court repeatedly continued the custody trial to allow Terrace's counsel to get in contact with Terrace and arrange for his telephonic...
OPINION STOWERS , Chief Justice . I. INTRODUCTION While sitting on his motorcycle at a stop light, Chad Hahn was thrown backwards when Franklin Townsend's car failed to stop in time and struck the motorcycle. During settlement negotiations in the tort suit that followed, Hahn sought payment under Townsend's underinsured motorist (UIM) insurance policy. Hahn argued that he was an insured occupant of Townsend's car because he landed on the car after the impact and that Townsend's...
OPINION BOLGER , Justice . I. INTRODUCTION A family rushed to the scene of a car accident, only to discover that it had been caused by a family member, who soon died from her traumatic injuries. The family brought a bystander claim against the deceased family member's estate for negligent infliction of emotional distress, making the novel argument that, even though the family member was also the tortfeasor, the family could recover for its resulting emotional distress. The superior court...
Memorandum decisions of this court do not create legal precedent. A party wishing to cite such a decision in a brief or at oral argument should review Alaska Appellate Rule 214(d). MEMORANDUM OPINION ANDJUDGMENT * I. INTRODUCTION The estate of a man who drowned on a rafting trip challenged the validity of the pre-trip liability release. The superior court granted summary judgment in favor of the rafting company. Because there were no genuine issues of material fact and the release was...
OPINION BOLGER , Justice . I. INTRODUCTION A borrower defaulted on a loan, leading to a non-judicial foreclosure of a deed of trust on his property. He filed suit against the property's new owner and the credit union that initiated the foreclosure, arguing the foreclosure and the transactions preceding it were fraudulent and invalid. The superior court granted summary judgment for the defendants. We affirm the superior court's conclusion that the borrower failed to demonstrate an issue...
OPINION MAASSEN , Justice . I. INTRODUCTION Unmarried parents separated and asked the superior court for a custody and child support order. The father was receiving military disability payments but was otherwise unemployed. In calculating his child support liability, the superior court imputed income to him of $40,000 in addition to his military disability payments. The court also apparently rejected the father's request to deduct business losses, including depreciation, incurred by his...
OPINION MAASSEN , Justice . I. INTRODUCTION A city evicted commercial tenants from city-owned land and was granted a money judgment against them for unpaid rent and sales taxes. The tenants left behind various improvements, as well as items of personal property related to their operation of a marine fueling facility on the land. The city pursued collection of its money judgment for several years before suspending its efforts; about eight years later it resumed its attempts to collect. The...
