Territory of Alaska v. Alaska Juneau Gold Mining Co.

9 Alaska 360
CourtDistrict Court, D. Alaska
DecidedSeptember 24, 1938
DocketNos. 4083 — A-4088—A
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 9 Alaska 360 (Territory of Alaska v. Alaska Juneau Gold Mining Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Alaska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Territory of Alaska v. Alaska Juneau Gold Mining Co., 9 Alaska 360 (D. Alaska 1938).

Opinion

ALEXANDER, District Judge.

The Territory of Alaska, as plaintiff, has filed in this court a series of actions against the Alaska Juneau Gold Mining Company, a corporation, same being numbered 4083-A, 4084 — A, 4085-A, 4086-A, 4087-A and 4088-A, by which it seeks to recover in favor of the Territory and against the defendant, under the provisions of Sections 2161, 2162 and 2172, C.L.A.1933, known as the Alaska Workmen’s Compensation Act, as amended by Chapter 84, S.L.A.1935.

The complaints in each of these' cases allege in substance that the defendant was operating a mine at or near Juneau in the Territory of Alaska under a contract with all its employees and the Territory of Alaska to pay compensation to its said emploj^ees, or their beneficiaries, for injuries sustained, arising out- of or in the course of their employment, causing .disability or death, according to the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act of Alaska, to-wit, Section 2161, ■ C.L.A.1933, as amended by Chapter 84, S.L.A.1935.

The complaints then allege that the named employee of defendant was killed - in the course of his employment, and that by reason thereof and of such Workmen’s Compensation Act the defendant is indebted to the plaintiff for the compensation provided for under the provisions of said act, in various amounts up to the maximum of $4,000; that the plaintiff has demanded payment of the amounts sued for as compensation to the Territory, but that said defendant has failed, neglected and refused to pay the same or any part thereof.

[363]*363In each of said cases the defendant filed its demurrers to plaintiff’s complaints, but subsequently abandoned the same without presentation, and filed its answers thereto, substantially admitting the facts set forth in plaintiff’s several complaints, but denying that it was operating under any contract with the Territory or its employees to pay them compensation and denying all liability thereunder. The defendant then pleads three identical separate affirmative defenses to each of'plaintiff’s complaints. To these affirmative defenses the plaintiff has demurred.

In 1929 the Legislature of Alaska, passed what is known as the Workmen’s Compensation Act of Alaska, Laws 1929, c. 25, the title of which reads as follows: “An Act relating to the Measure and Recovery of compensation of injured employees in all businesses, occupations, work, employments, and industries employing five or more employees in the Territory of Alaska, except domestic service, agriculture, dairying and the operation of railroads as common carriers, and relating to the compensation of designated beneficiaries where such injuries result in death, defining and regulating the liability of employers to their employees in connection with such business and industries, * * * repealing all acts and parts of acts in conflict with this act and declaring an emergency.”

In 1935 the Legislature amended this act by the enactment of Chapter 84 of the Session Laws of 1935, the title of the amendatory act- reading as follows: “An Act To amend Section 2161, 2162 and 2172, Compiled Laws of Alaska 1933, relating to the payment of compensation to injured workmen, etc.”

This amendment provides in substance for certain payments to be made to the Territory of Alaska in cases where a deceased employee leaves no beneficiaries, and for certain other payments in case the beneficiaries are of certain classes. Where there are no beneficiaries it is provided by the amendatory act of 1935 that the employer pay, in addition to the funeral expenses and hos[364]*364pital expenses of the deceased employee, the sum of $4,-000 into the Territorial Treasury to be credited to current appropriations for allowance to aged residents. Other lesser sums are required to be paid into the Territorial Treasury, to be credited to current appropriations for allowance to aged residents, where the deceased employee leaves a wife or children, or a father or a mother, or both, who are aliens.

The pertinent parts of the amendatory act assailed by the defendant in its answers to these several causes of action are those which provide for additional compensation to be paid to the Territory, and that such amounts shall be credited to the current appropriation for allowance to aged residents, as for example; it is provided in subsection (8) of Section 4: “And in addition thereto shall pay to the Territory the sum of Four Thousand Dollars ($4,000.00), to be covered into the Territorial Treasury and credited to the current appropriation for allowance to aged residents.”

The validity of these parts of the amendatory act is assailed by the defendant in its first, second and third affirmative defenses as void and of no effect in that they violate the provisions of our Organic Act and the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

In its second affirmative defense the defendant alleges:

“And the defendant further answering and by way of affirmative defense alleges: That the act under which this proceeding is brought, to-wit: Chapter 84 of the Session Laws of 1935, the same being an act entitled, ‘An Act To amend Section 2161, 2162 and 2172, Compiled Laws of Alaska 1933, relating to the payment of compensation to injured workmen, etc.,’ more especially in so far as it relates to the payment of compensation or other monies to the Territory of Alaska in the cases in said act specified, is void and of no effect in that the title violates the provisions of the Organic Act providing: ‘No law [365]*365shall embrace more than one subject, which shall be expressed in its title,’ in this (1) that the title of the act is insufficient for any purpose (2) in that the act contains more than one subject (3) in that the provisions of the act to which objection is made — that is to say, the provisions relating to the payment of compensation or other money to the Territory of Alaska, are not within the scope of the title of the act, and not germane to the subject expressed therein (4) and that the above mentioned portions of the act are void for the further reason that they violate the provisions of the act of Congress dated July 30, 1886, 48 U.S.C.A. § 1471, which provides that Territories are prohibited by acts of this character from ‘changing the law of descent,’ (5) and that the portions of said act which relate to the payment of compensation to the Territory, or the payment of other money to the Territory, the same being the portions of the act upon which this action is based, are void and of no effect in that they violate the Constitution of the United States, more especially in this: That they provide for the taking of private property from the defendant without compensation, that they deprive the defendant of property and liberty without due process of law; and that they impose a condition upon the right of private contract, which amounts to a deprivation of property and liberty without due process; and further, that the provisions referred to deny to the defendant the equal protection of the laws.
“And in this connection the defendant further avers: That the provisions of the act above referred to, which form the basis of this action and which relate to the payment of compensation or other money to the Territory of Alaska, are void in that they violate the provisions of the Organic Act reading as follows: ‘* * * all taxes shall be uniform upon the same class of subjects and shall be levied and collected under general laws, and the assessments shall be according to the actual value thereof.

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Related

Griffin v. Sheldon
78 F. Supp. 466 (D. Alaska, 1948)

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Bluebook (online)
9 Alaska 360, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/territory-of-alaska-v-alaska-juneau-gold-mining-co-akd-1938.