Opinion ID: 1239050
Heading Depth: 6
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Pre-1978 disposals

Text: The superior court evaluated the plaintiffs' risk of recovering lands disposed of prior to the 1978 redesignation legislation as very high. The court reasoned that because [n]othing in Weiss would require that they be included in the reconstituted trust, [18] the plaintiffs would have to prove a breach of trust or other invalidity other than the enactment of the redesignation legislation. It concluded that, under University of Alaska and the legislature's power under the AMHEA to dispose of trust lands, the plaintiffs would be unlikely to succeed in forcing the State to return this land. Weiss contends that the plaintiffs would have little difficulty in establishing that the pre-1978 transfers were in breach of trust. The lands disposed of prior to 1978 include both purchases by third parties and land designated for other uses. As discussed above, the trial court reasonably found the risk of recovering land in these two categories as very high and high, respectively. This analysis applies with equal force to the pre-1978 disposals. Thus the superior court did not err in its evaluation of the risk with respect to recovering this category of land.