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Fairbanks School District v. Duncan (8/5/94), 878 P 2d 641
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Notice: This opinion is subject to correction before
publication in the Pacific Reporter. Readers are
requested to bring errors to the attention of the Clerk
of the Appellate Courts, 303 K Street, Anchorage,
Alaska 99501.
THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF ALASKA
FAIRBANKS NORTH STAR )
BOROUGH SCHOOL DISTRICT, ) Supreme Court No. S-5975
)
Petitioner, ) Superior Court No.
) 4FA-93-1728 CI
v. )
) O P I N I O N
RODNEY DUNCAN, )
)
Respondent. ) [No. 4110 - August 5, 1994]
______________________________)
Petition for Review from the Superior
Court of the State of Alaska, Fourth Judicial
District, Fairbanks, Mary E. Greene, Judge.
Appearances: Joan E. Rohlf, Guess &
Rudd, Anchorage, for Petitioner. Robert B.
Groseclose, A. Rene' Broker, Cook Schuhmann &
Groseclose, Fairbanks, for Respondent.
Before: Moore, Chief Justice, Matthews,
Compton and Eastaugh, Justices. [Rabinowitz,
Justice, not participating.]
PER CURIAM
On petition for review by the Fairbanks North Star
Borough School District, the superior court's ruling that a
tenured school teacher is entitled to a jury trial in an action
under AS 14.20.205 for review of his dismissal is reversed. The
right of trial by jury in Alaska "is preserved to the same extent
as it existed at common law." Alaska Const. art. I, 16. No
right to trial by jury attaches to an action for a statutory
remedy unless the statute so provides or the statutory remedy is
a codification of a common law remedy. Diedrich v. City of
Ketchikan, 805 P.2d 362, 367 (Alaska 1991).1
Trial de novo on appeal from an adverse school board
decision is a statutory right, created by AS 14.20.205. This
section does not provide explicitly for a right to trial by jury.
Nor does the term "trial de novo"itself imply such a right. In
addition, teachers in Alaska do not have any common law right to
sue their employers for wrongful termination. At the time of
Statehood, when the Alaska Constitution became operative, a
discharged teacher was limited to administrative remedies. See
ch. 71 SLA 1957, repealed 5 ch. 92 SLA 1960. As a right to
trial by jury is neither provided for by AS 14.20.205 nor
constitutionally required, the superior court erred by refusing
to strike Duncan's request for a jury trial. Its decision is
REVERSED.
_______________________________
1 See also, e.g., Skinner v. Angliker, 559 A.2d 701, 703
(Conn. 1989) (right to jury trial extends to statutory
proceedings if issues were triable to jury prior to enactment of
constitutional provision); Abbamont v. Piscataway Township Bd. of
Educ., 570 A.2d 479, 480-81 (N.J. Super. 1990) (teacher not
entitled to jury trial where statute does not provide right and
the "statutory cause of action is separate and distinct from
common law causes of action"); Murphy v. Cartex Corp., 546 A.2d
1217, 1222 (Pa. Super. 1988) ("Jury trials are not available in
proceedings created by statute unless the proceeding has a common
law basis or unless the statute expressly or impliedly so
provides."); Jensen v. State Tax Comm'n, 835 P.2d 965, 969 (Utah
1992) (no right to jury trial where procedures "are solely
creatures of statute and were not cognizable as civil actions at
common law.").
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