Justia Alaska Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

In 2005, appellants Max and Peggy Espeland refinanced their home with E-Loan, Inc. Shortly thereafter, their loan was purchased by another bank and securitized. The Espelands eventually defaulted on the loan and their home was sold in a non-judicial deed of trust foreclosure. The Espelands brought an action in the superior court to void the sale, arguing mainly that inconsistencies in and multiple transfers of the loan and security documents caused defects in the chain of title. The superior court disagreed and granted summary judgment against the Espelands. The Espelands appealed. Thereafter, the Espelands moved for relief from judgment, citing fraud by the defendants. The superior court denied this motion. The Espelands filed a second appeal, and the Supreme Court consolidated the two appeals for decision. Because the Espelands did not produce any evidence of defects with the chain of title or with the foreclosure, the Supreme Court affirmed the superior court’s grant of summary judgment. Because after reviewing the record the Court saw no evidence of fraud or malfeasance, it affirmed the superior court’s denial of the motion for relief from judgment. View "Espeland v. OneWest Bank, FSB" on Justia Law

Rowan B., Sr. and Risa F. appealed the adjudication of their children as children in need of aid. The adjudication was based on allegations that Rowan had physically and sexually abused their daughter and Risa's daughters from an earlier relationship and that Risa was too mentally ill to care for the children. Risa challenged the finding that her mental illness prevented her from adequately parenting the children. Rowan raised numerous challenges to the trial court’s actions, including arguments about notice and denial of materials during discovery. Upon review, the Supreme Court concluded that the trial court erred in denying Rowan access to materials he sought through discovery without at least conducting an in camera review. The Court retained jurisdiction and remanded the case to the trial court for further limited proceedings. View "Rowan B. v. Alaska, Dept. of Health & Social Services, Office of Children's Services" on Justia Law

Bret Maness alleged that defendants committed a series of sexual assaults against him in the 1970s, when he was still a child. He further alleged that, although the defendants used a combination of date rape drugs and hypnosis to cause him to forget these incidents, he recovered memories of the assaults shortly before filing his complaint. Maness sued for assault and battery, sexual assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and false imprisonment, based on those 1970s incidents. The superior court concluded that Maness' claims are barred by the statute of limitations. In his appeal, Maness argued that the discovery rule tolled the statute of limitations because he provided an affidavit stating that he suffered from repressed memory syndrome and has only recently recovered memories of these assaults. The Supreme Court agreed with the superior court’s conclusion that expert testimony is necessary to support a claim based on repressed memory syndrome and affirmed the grant of summary judgment in favor of defendants. View "Maness v. Gordon" on Justia Law

A husband and wife divorced in 2011. In their property settlement agreement, the wife would receive 55% of the marital estate and 50% of the marital share of the husband's military pension. The parties then disputed how to properly effectuate the settlement agreement. They submitted competing orders addressing the military pension division, and the superior court accepted the wife’s order. The husband appealed, arguing that: (1) he was denied the opportunity to present evidence; (2) the superior court violated federal law by dividing gross pay, disability pay, and more than 50% of disposable retirement pay; (3) the superior court’s final order awarding survivor benefits did not comply with the parties’ settlement agreement and ignored the parties’ stipulated length of marriage; (4) the superior court erred by awarding the wife additional compensation without explanation; and (5) the superior court incorrectly barred the parties’ children from survivor benefit coverage. Because the superior court ignored the stipulated length of marriage and awarded the wife a survivor benefit exceeding her share of the husband’s military pension, the Supreme Court reversed and remanded on those issues. Otherwise, the Court affirmed the superior court’s decision. View "Glover v. Ranney" on Justia Law

Responding to a domestic disturbance call, police officers entered a residence without a warrant and pepper sprayed and handcuffed a resident. The family sued for excessive force and unlawful entry. The superior court dismissed the claims on summary judgment, granting qualified immunity for the excessive force claims and holding that the family had not raised a cognizable unlawful entry claim. The superior court later denied the family’s Alaska Civil Rule 60(b)(2) motion to set aside the rulings based on newly discovered evidence. The family appealed. Upon review of the trial court record, the Supreme Court affirmed the summary judgment ruling and the denial of the Rule 60(b)(2) motion, but remanded the case for further proceedings on the family’s trespass and invasion of privacy claims. View "Lum v. Koles" on Justia Law

An at-will employee was placed on probation and later terminated for making an inappropriate comment at a work party. The employee sued the employer for breach of contract and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. The superior court granted summary judgment on both counts. Upon review, the Supreme Court affirmed the superior court's judgment because the employee was at-will, his termination was not a breach of his employment contract, and he failed to present a genuine issue that the employer acted in bad faith. View "Morrison v. NANA WorleyParsons, LLC" on Justia Law

Philip J. has nine children. The superior court terminated his parental rights to eight. Philip appealed two separate termination orders (Case No. S-14810 and Case No. S14994) which were consolidated in this decision. Philip argued that the superior court erred in finding that active efforts were made to keep this Indian family together in both termination orders. He also argued that the superior court erred when it determined that his eighth child was a child in need of aid. Finding no reversible error, the Supreme Court affirmed both orders. View "Phillip J. v. Alaska" on Justia Law

Jimmy Jack Korkow was convicted of first-degree murder for beating and stabbing his wife to death while the couple’s young children were present in the family home. The trial court sentenced Korkow to 99 years in prison with no possibility for parole until he served 50 years. The court of appeals reversed the 50-year parole restriction as mistaken; the Supreme Court granted the State's petition for review. Because the trial court correctly applied the statutory restriction on parole after making sufficient findings supported by the record, the Court reversed the court of appeals and held that the restriction was not excessive. View "Alaska v. Korkow" on Justia Law

Appellant Delbert Urban borrowed against his home in order to build a yacht. He owned the home with his wife Martha. The yacht was destroyed by fire, and the bank foreclosed on the home. After Martha filed for divorce, the parties agreed to divide most of the remaining assets, but disputed the value of certain property they owned out of state. Just before trial, Martha discovered Delbert had hidden assets that he failed to disclose in his pretrial disclosures. The superior court awarded Martha spousal support and attorney’s fees because Delbert's hid assets from the pretrial disclosures. The Delbert appealed the superior court's order. The Supreme Court affirmed the support award and valuation of the out of state land. But the Court reversed and remanded to allow the superior court to reconsider the attorney’s fees award and the classification of the hidden assets. View "Urban v. Urban" on Justia Law

Bachner Company and Bowers Investment Company were unsuccessful bidders on a public contract proposal. They filed a claim for intentional interference with prospective economic opportunity against four individual procurement committee members. The superior court found that the bidders failed to present a genuine issue of material fact regarding the committee members' alleged bad faith conduct. The superior court then held that the committee members were protected by qualified immunity and that the lawsuit was barred by the exclusive remedy statute. The bidders thereafter appealed. Upon review, the Supreme Court concluded that the bidders indeed failed to present a genuine issue of material fact regarding the committee members' alleged bad faith. Furthermore, the exclusive remedy statute barred the bidders' suit. Accordingly, the Court affirmed the trial court's decision. View "Bachner Company, Inc. v. Weed" on Justia Law