Alaska Employment Law

Rehearing petition in Ayuluk: The employer has asked for rehearing in Ayuluk v. Red Oaks Assisted Living, Inc.,  Op. No.  6337 (Alaska Feb. 20, 2009), the opinion about employer vicarious liability for an employee’s sexual misdeeds discussed recently here. 

The Petition for Rehearing, filed by Peter Maassen, focuses on what it calls

the court’s abrupt but unexplored departure from settled tort law by holding that whenever consensual sex violates a professional ethical standard, tort damages may be recovered for sex to which a plaintiff was fully capable of consenting and did in fact consent.

We’ll file a copy of the Opposition if the Court requests such.

Federal Tort Claims Act:  The 9th Circuit has affirmed U. S. District Judge Ralph Beistline’s dismissal of FTCA claims asserted by a VA patient.  The appeals court agreed that an IIED claim can’t be based on “the discovery of an errant document” in a medical records file, and that the VA Department could temporarily suspend non-emergency medical treatment for a non-cooperative patient.  Journey v. U. S., 2009 WL 567872 (9th Cir. 2009)(unpub.)