Court Opinion

ID: 9791940
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:20:43.166773+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:39.518710
License: Public Domain

RABINO WITZ, Justice,
with whom MATTHEWS, Chief Justice, joins dissenting.
I dissent from the court’s holding that the superior court erred in denying the Kasnicks prejudgment interest by virtue of its imposition of a rental offset. Given the authorization found in AS 09.55.450(a) and the factual context of this record, I cannot agree that the superior court abused its discretion in fixing a reasonable rental for the Kasnicks’ continued beneficial use of parcels 56 and 57.
Alaska Statute 09.55.450(a) provides, in relevant part:
Where the party in possession withdraws any part of the award and remains in possession, the court may fix a reasonable rental for the premises to be paid by that party to the plaintiff during such possession.
Nothing in the Satterberg-Walton agreement, memorialized in Satterberg’s letter of September 17, 1986, undermined the superior court’s authority to fix a reasonable rental for the Kasnicks’ continued possession and beneficial use of parcels 56 and 57 pursuant to the statute. The Satterberg-Walton agreement does not address the question of accrual of interest for the period during which the Kasnicks were to have *782the beneficial use of the parcels in question. On the other hand, the agreement explicitly gave the Kasnicks the beneficial use of parcels 56 and 57 until construction by the state actually commenced on the road project, for the purpose of making parking available to their patrons. In exchange for this use, the Kasnicks agreed not to appeal or otherwise seek review of the superior court’s order holding that the state had established both its authority to take the Kasnicks’ property, and the need to do so. The Satterberg-Walton agreement further indicates that a stipulation was to be prepared providing for the disbursal to the Kasnicks of at least $200,-000.00 from the funds which the state had deposited as its estimate of just compensation.
Alaska Statute 09.55.450(a) is designed to prevent a condemnee from receiving both interest on the money equivalent of the property taken and the continued use of the property by the condemnee. The superior court’s disallowance of interest effectuated this purpose. As noted, the Satter-berg-Waltdn agreement fails to address either the subject of interest or the implications of AS 09.55.450(a). Nonetheless, applicable laws which are in existence at the time of the formation of a contract and which the parties are presumed to know are incorporated into the contract as a matter of law.1 Thus, I agree with the superi- or court’s conclusion that it is illogical to assume that by virtue of the Satterberg-Walton agreement the state waived its right to invoke the court’s discretion to fix a reasonable rental for the Kasnicks’ continued beneficial use of parcels 56 and 57.

. See Skagway City School Board v. Davis, 543 P.2d 218, 222 (Alaska 1975).