Opinion ID: 1420265
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Exclusive Remedy Provision of the Alaska Workers' Compensation Act

Text: Norcon argues that Kotowski's entire claim was barred by AS 23.30.055, which provides that an employer's liability for a worker's compensation under AS 23.30.045 is exclusive and in place of all other liability of the employer and any fellow employee to the employee. One of Kotowski's responses to this argument is that it was not timely raised. The exclusive remedy defense was raised below for the first and only time in one sentence as part of Norcon's reply memorandum in support of its motion for JNOV. [14] In Veco v. Rosebrock, 970 P.2d 906 (Alaska 1998), we held that claims of sexual harassment under Alaska's anti-discrimination statute may include damages for emotional distress and that such claims are not barred by the exclusive remedy provision of the Workers' Compensation Act. Veco, at 921-22. Further, we held in Cameron v. Beard, 864 P.2d 538, 545 n. 9 (Alaska 1993), that claims for lost wages due to breach of an employment contract are not barred by the exclusivity provision. But Kotowski's tort claims for IIED and NIED might have been subject to that defense had the defense been timely raised. See Elliott v. Brown, 569 P.2d 1323, 1325-27 (Alaska 1977) (exclusive remedy clause bars suit against employer for intentional tort committed by co-employee, suit against co-employee not barred). As it was, however, Norcon permitted these claims to go to the jury without objection based on the exclusivity clause. This failure is important because the jury's award of emotional distress damages might be ascribable either to Kotowski's sexual harassment claim or her IIED and NIED tort claims. An award under the last two theories, but not the first, might be barred. A timely objection, if granted, would have eliminated the need to speculate as to whether the jury's award was attributable to the permissible or the possibly barred theories. We therefore conclude that the exclusive remedy defense was not timely raised below. It is therefore waived on appeal.