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You can search the entire site. or go to the recent opinions, or the chronological or subject indices. Mattox v. State, Dept. of Corrections (5/19/2017) sp-7170
Notice: This opinion is subject to correction before publication in the P ACIFIC REPORTER.
Readers are requested to bring errors to the attention of the Clerk of the Appellate Courts,
303 K Street, Anchorage, Alaska 99501, phone (907) 264-0608, fax (907) 264-0878, email
corrections@akcourts.us.
THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF ALASKA
RICHARD A. MATTOX, )
) Supreme Court No. S-16031
Appellant, )
) Superior Court No. 3PA-09-01695 CI
v. )
)
O P I N I O N
STATE OF ALASKA, )
DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS ) No. 7170 - May 19, 2017
,
)
Appellee. )
_______________________________ )
Appeal from the Superior Court of the State of Alaska, Third
Judicial District, Palmer, Vanessa White, Judge.
Appearances: Benjamin I. Whipple, Palmer, for Appellant.
Susan M. West, Assistant Attorney General, Anchorage, and
Craig W. Richards, Attorney General, Juneau, for Appellee.
Before: Stowers, Chief Justice, Maassen, Bolger, Justices.
[Winfree and Carney, Justices, not participating.]
STOWERS, Chief Justice.
I. INTRODUCTION
In July 2009 Richard Mattox filed suit against the Department of
Corrections (DOC) for injuries arising from an assault by another prisoner. Mattox
alleged that DOC was negligent in failing to accommodate his requests for transfer to a
different housing module prior to the assault and that DOC was negligent in permitting
the correctional officer on duty to leave the module during the time the assault occurred.
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"renew its request for immunity as to particular claims at the close of plaintiffs' case in
46
chief."
Consequently, OCS moved for a directed verdict on discretionary function
47 The court denied that motion and concluded that the scope of
immunity grounds.
48 While we did not base
OCS's liability would be addressed through jury instructions.
our decision on the superior court's approach to discretionary function immunity, we
took the "opportunity to clarify the proper procedure for ensuring that the jury does not
hold the [S]tate liable for its discretionary acts."49 Following our decision in State,
Department of Corrections v. Cowles, we explained,
"[T]he allegedly negligent decisions in a particular case must
be examined individually to determine if they are" protected
by discretionary function immunity. The trial court should
attempt to rule on these issues during pre-trial motion
practice. But if specific factual questions necessary to the
trial court's legal determinations need to be resolved by the
jury, specific jury interrogatories should be used. In short,
although the jury may need to decide the factual
underpinnings of the trial court's conclusions, discretionary
immunity decisions must remain with the judge.[50]
Mattox correctly observes that "the [superior] court made no pre-trial or
mid-trial decisions on the application of the discretionary immunity defense" to DOC's
policy permitting correctional officers to leavetheirmodules unattended for briefperiods
of time, leaving the jury "free to decide for itself the scope and application of the state
46 Id.
47 Id.
48 Id.
49 Id. at 1043.
50 Id. at 1044 (quoting State, Dep't of Corr. v. Cowles, 151 P.3d 353, 359
(Alaska 2006)).
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----------------------- Page 20-----------------------
discretionary function immunity doctrine." During a hearing on Mattox's motion for
new trial the superior court also acknowledged in its oral ruling that
the proper procedure, which none of [them] followed, would
have been for the court to ideally hold an evidentiary hearing
prior to trial on the issues the parties reasonably could
identify as speaking to the issue of discretionary immunity
and to make rulings about what evidence would not be
allowed, if any, because it was protected by that immunity.
The alternative would have been a special verdict form that
helped the court to preserve for itself the issues of
discretionary immunity.
We agree with the superior court that it is best practice to reserve questions
of discretionary function immunity for itself, but its failure to do so in this context was
not error, as it was in Mullins. In Mullins OCS had expressly requested that the superior
court decide the scope and application of discretionary immunity twice, once through a
51 This
summary judgment motion and again through a motion for a directed verdict.
required the superior court to follow the procedures laid out in Mullins and decide the
issue for itself.52 Instead, the court refused to decide the matter and issued an erroneous
jury instruction. 53 In contrast, Mattox made no summary judgment or directed verdict
motion regarding the issue, nor did he object to DOC's proposed instruction. When the
superior court proposed a modified version of this instruction and presented it to both
parties Mattox again did not object. Accordingly, the court gave the legally correct
statement of the law to the jury. Thus, unlike Mullins, Mattox impliedly consented to
have the jury apply an accurate statement of the law of discretionary function immunity,
51 Id. at 1040.
52 Id.
53 Id. at 1043.
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----------------------- Page 21-----------------------
as articulated by the superior court, to the facts as the jury found them. We therefore
conclude that the superior court's failure to apply the doctrine for itself sua sponte was
not error, let alone plain error. 54
Lastly, "we review denial of a new trial under an abuse of discretion
standard wherein we disturb the trial court's discretion only in the most exceptional
55 "[G]enerally the verdict should
circumstances to prevent a miscarriage of justice."
stand unless the evidence clearly establishes a serious violation of the juror's duty and
deprives a party of a fair trial."56 Given that the superior court did not commit error, the
court's decision to deny Mattox a new trial was not an abuse of discretion. In other
words, disturbing the court's denial of a new trial is unwarranted and not necessary to
prevent a miscarriage of justice.57
V. CONCLUSION
We AFFIRM the superior court's denial of Mattox's motion for a new trial.
54 Under Alaska Civil Rule 51, Mattox could not "assign as error the giving
or the failure to give an instruction unless [he] object[ed] thereto before the jury retire[d]
to consider its verdict, stating distinctly the matter to which [he] object[ed] and the
grounds of the objection." Mattox had several opportunities to object, but did not.
Instead he agreed with issuing the instruction. Now he alleges plain error on appeal, but
we conclude that neither the superior court's approach to discretionary function
immunity in this context nor the language of the instruction given was erroneous.
55 Alaska Fur Gallery, Inc. v. First Nat'l Bank Alaska, 345 P.3d 76, 83
(Alaska 2015) (quoting Turner v. Municipality of Anchorage, 171 P.3d 180, 185 (Alaska
2007)).
56 West v. State, 409 P.2d 847, 852 (Alaska 1966) (citing State v. Gardner,
371 P.2d 558, 561 (Or. 1962)).
57 We have not been asked to decide whether the jury's application of
discretionary function immunity to DOC's policy of allowing officers to leave modules
unattended for short periods of time was correct and we do not decide the issue here.
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