Opinion ID: 2611904
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: The meaning of occupant under section 14(c).

Text: Having reviewed the language and purpose of section 14(c) and the relevant case law, we are in a position to interpret the meaning of the term occupant. The dictionary definition, one who occupies a particular place or premise captures the intended meaning accurately for most cases. [16] However, for situations involving tenancies or similar relationships this definition is inadequate. It would require a reconveyance to an occupier who is merely a tenant of the owner of the improvements. Such a person's property interest is not strong. Further, in some cases this would be unjust to the owner of the improvements, as where the owner holds under a long-term government lease and would be protected for the term of the lease under section 14(g), while the tenant, whose sole residence is on the premises, would have a claim to title under section 14(c)(1). Moreover, case law construing the term occupant in the analogous townsite act context seems to be clear that one who is merely a tenant is not an occupant. It is necessary therefore in tenancy cases to add to the dictionary definition a requirement that the occupier have an equitable interest in the improvements. The definition in such cases thus would be one who occupies a particular place or premise and has an equitable interest in the improvements thereon. [17] As in the townsite act cases, there should be a rebuttable presumption that the occupier on the critical date is the occupant and thus entitled to a conveyance assuming that the occupancy purpose requirements are met. In determining whether an occupier has the requisite equitable interest, technical or strict property concepts need not be adhered to. This approach is employed in the cases interpreting the townsite acts. See, e.g., Singer Mfg. Co., 3 Ariz. 122, 21 P. 818; Pratt, 1 Utah at 353 (quoted supra in note 14). It seems especially appropriate to section 14(c), since 14(c)'s purpose is to distribute individual titles to residents of Alaska villages where concepts of American property law have been little used. We are mindful of the rule of construction that ambiguous laws affecting Natives should be construed in favor of Natives. Hakala, 753 P.2d at 1147. This rule should not be applied in favor of TDX in this case for a number of reasons. First, TDX offers no interpretation of section 14(c) which is reasonably consistent with the language of that section, or its purpose. Second, the central purpose of 14(c) was to effect the transfer of title to thousands of Alaska Natives individually. A narrow construction of 14(c) would serve to thwart rather than further that purpose. [18] Third, as section 14(c) is structured, questions of entitlement as to improved land in and around Native villages involve as competing claimants not individual occupants and village corporations, but individual occupants and municipal corporations (or the State of Alaska in trust for future municipal corporations). Under section 14(c)(3), improved land in and around Native villages which is not transferred to individual occupants under (c)(1) or (2) is to be conveyed to the municipal corporation for the village or, if there is none, to the state in trust for a future municipal corporation.