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Nickels v. Napolilli8/17/2001
and the legislature did not exempt farm workers such as Nickels. As Nickels's job is not specifically exempted from the workers' compensation statute, the determination of Nickels's status as an employee based on the "relative nature of the work" test controls, and Nickels was appropriately considered an employee covered under the Act.
D. The Trial Court Properly Determined that the Napolillis' Motion for Reconsideration of Summary Judgment in Nickels's Favor Was Moot.
After the superior court conducted a bench trial regarding whether Nickels was the Napolillis' employee for workers' compensation purposes, it ruled that both Nickels's arm injury and back injury occurred within the course and scope of her employment with the Napolillis and granted Nickels's motion for summary judgment on liability. It is not disputed that the arm injury occurred when Nickels was performing a farm chore. Judge Steinkruger determined that because Nickels resided at the work site as a part of her employment and because the back injury occurred on the work site, that injury also "ar out of and in the course of employment."
The Napolillis sought reconsideration of this summary judgment ruling, arguing that the trial court overlooked the fact that the employment relationship had ended before the back injury occurred. After the trial court dismissed the case and referred it to the Alaska Workers' Compensation Board, Judge Steinkruger ruled that the reconsideration motion was moot.
Once the trial court determined that Nickels's abandonment of her tort claims left her with no tenable claim at law -- so that Nickels's only remaining option was to pursue her workers' compensation claims -- the trial court properly deferred deciding any remaining matters relating to the merits of Nickels's administrative claims. Thus, to the extent that any issues relating to the merits of Nickels's workers' compensation claims were not finally resolved by the trial judge in her determination of whether Nickels had a tenable action at law, they must be left to the Alaska Workers' Compensation Board for resolution. The trial court therefore properly denied on mootness grounds the Napolillis' motion for reconsideration of the summary judgment ruling on the issue of work-relatedness of Nickels's back injury.
IV. CONCLUSION
Because Nickels's breach of contract claims rely upon duties created by the Alaska Workers' Compensation Act, and because the Act provides an adequate remedy for that breach and does not permit a separate suit for breach of contract, we AFFIRM the superior court's dismissal of those claims. We also AFFIRM the superior court's determination that Nickels was an employee of the Napolillis for the purposes of the Alaska Workers' Compensation Act and therefore REMAND to the trial court to allow Nickels to pursue her claims before the Workers' Compensation Board.
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