Opinion ID: 2623956
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The City's Claim Against the Department of Public Safety for Reimbursement of Transportation Expenses

Text: The superior court viewed the city's motion for summary judgment as including a request for reimbursement of the city's costs in transporting city-arrested prisoners to court for arraignment from July 1, 2003, through October 10, 2003, when the troopers resumed handling the task of transportation. The court granted the city summary judgment on this issue, concluding that [t]he Department of Public Safety has the statutory duty to provide or arrange for transport of prisoners to court for arraignment within Kotzebue. Relying on its finding of this general obligation, the court concluded that the city was entitled to reimbursement for all prisoner transportation costs it incurred from July 1 to October 10, 2003. On appeal, the city requests this court to direct the superior court to issue an even broader order, prospectively requiring the State of Alaska to fulfill its constitutional and statutory obligations for the . . . escort of pre-arraignment state-charged prisoners. But the state has not appealed the superior court's order of reimbursement; nor has it disputed the conclusion of law underlying the court's order. In effect, then, the city prevailed below in establishing the department's duty to transport prisoners within Kotzebue; the superior court's ruling on the point is undisputed; and, as the law of the case, that ruling will be binding on the parties in their future handling of prisoners held by the city in Kotzebue. Under these circumstances, we see no reason to require a broader order addressing the department of public safety's future handling of Kotzebue prisoners. And to the extent that the order requested by the city seeks to control the department's future conduct in other communities, we think that the city has failed to establish any present controversy that would make its request ripe for review. Accordingly, we decline to address the city's request to direct the superior court to issue a broader order.