Alaska News

Legislature allocates $8.4M to pay settlements, judgments against state

More than half of the $8.4 million appropriated by the Alaska Legislature from the general fund to pay judgments and settlements against the state over the last fiscal year will go toward two cases involving the Department of Transportation.

That amount is about $500,000 shy of the state's settlements doled in the previous five fiscal years, according to state budget documents.

The largest settlement against the state was Greg and Amanda Lawton's case against the DOT. The couple sued the department two years ago and reached an agreement in September.

Amanda Lawton was severely injured on April 6, 2012, when a chunk of ice broke away from a rocky cliff on the Seward Highway between Anchorage and Girdwood and crushed her pickup, trapping her.

She suffered "grievous and permanent injuries, was in extreme pain and mental anguish for months following hospitalization, lost her ability to work, was disfigured and is currently under the continuing care of various medical providers -- as she will remain throughout her lifetime," the Lawton's suit says.

They argued DOT failed to mitigate the danger of and warn commuters about falling ice near mile 113 of the highway.

The state eventually said it would pay the Lawtons $5 million in two separate installments -- an initial payout of $500,000 and the remaining balance due upon legislative appropriation.

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Amanda and Greg Lawton could not be reached for comment. The Facebook page "Help Amanda" was last updated on Dec. 27.

"Unfortunately, I do still have days that I am very sad and angry about this accident, but I am learning how to deal with those with my doctors and therapists. Though this isn't the life I envisioned for myself three years ago, I am happy and thankful for the life I have right now," the post reads.

Following the accident, DOT said it would examine whether a revamping of its procedures would reduce the danger of falling ice.

Technical engineer Anna Bosin said falling ice is a complex issue for many states. The department is negotiating with an East Coast expert to travel to Alaska and conduct an evaluation on various highway corridors statewide, she said.

The short-term solution for potential ice and rock falls involves setting up traffic detours. Bosin said DOT installed a detour last spring near where ice crushed Lawton's truck.

For the longer term, the department continues to collect information for a database that rates slopes for potential rock and ice falls, said DOT Central Region engineering geologist Craig Boeckman.

"With that information, we're building up our rating system on how often falls occur in certain locations, and it will be used to prioritize areas for mitigation," Boeckman said.

The second largest settlement allocated also involved the Department of Transportation.

Alaska Department of Law spokesperson Cori Mills described Peter N. Fine's case against the transportation department as a "single car accident on the (George) Parks Highway. Plaintiffs believed maintenance of guardrail was inadequate."

But DOT information officer Meadow Bailey said the case was about snow removal around a guardrail.

"Liability was disputed, and DOT settled to avoid the cost of going to trial," she said. "But the guardrail was never in question, so there were no changes made (to the guardrail)."

The parties settled for more than $1 million, according to legislative documents.

Smaller judgments and settlements in the tens and hundreds of thousands fill out of the remainder of allocations. Mills said how the money is distributed differs for each case.

Another case of note among those settled involves $160,000 going to the estate of John Carlin III, who was convicted in 2006 of killing Kent Leppink. Prosecutors argued the woman at the center of a romantic triangle, Mechele Linehan, coaxed him into killing Leppink.

The Alaska Court of Appeals overturned Carlin's murder conviction earlier this year.

Carlin was beaten to death in prison in 2008 shortly after he arrived at Spring Creek Correctional Center to serve a 99-year sentence. His son, John Carlin IV, sued the state and numerous officials for failing to protect Carlin.

Jerzy Shedlock

Jerzy Shedlock is a former reporter for Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2017.

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