AS Title 23, Chapter 25: Employer's Liability for Negligence
AI-assisted research summary: Employers in machinery-based businesses may be liable for employee damages caused by employer negligence, and certain defenses are limited or unavailable.
Chapter 25. Employer's Liability for Negligence. Sec. 23.25.010. Liability to employees for defects or insufficiency of machinery. A person engaged in manufacturing, mining, constructing, building, or other business or occupation carried on by means of machinery or mechanical appliances is liable to an employee or, in the event of the employee's death, to the employee's personal representative for the benefit of the employee's surviving spouse and children, if any, or if none, then for the employee's parents, or, if neither surviving spouse, nor children nor parents, then for the employee's next of kin dependent upon the employee, for all damages that may result from the negligence of any of the employer's officers, agents, or employees, or by reason of defect or insufficiency due to the employer's negligence in the machinery, appliances, and works. Sec. 23.25.020. Contributory negligence not a defense. In an action against a master or employer under AS 23.25.010 the fact that the employee may have been guilty of contributory negligence does not bar a recovery where the employee's contributory negligence was slight and the negligence of the employer was gross in comparison, but the damages shall be diminished by the jury in proportion to the amount of negligence attributable to the employee. All questions of negligence and contributory negligence are for the jury. Sec. 23.25.030. Contract, insurance, or indemnity is not a defense. (a) No contract of employment, insurance, relief benefit, indemnity for injury or death entered into by or on behalf of an employee, nor the acceptance of insurance, relief benefit, or indemnity by the person entitled to it constitutes a bar or defense to an action brought to recover damages for personal injuries to or death of the employee. (b) Upon trial of the action the defendant may set off the sum contributed by the employer toward the insurance, relief benefit, or indemnity paid to the employee, or in case of the employee's death to the employee's personal representative. (c) Contributions for insurance, relief benefit, or indemnity exacted from or paid by the employee may not be allowed as set off. Sec. 23.25.040. Prerequisites to maintenance of action. An action may not be maintained under this chapter unless (1) it is shown that there exist beneficiaries as provided in AS 23.25.010 ; (2) the action is brought within two years from the time the cause of action accrued.