Libby, McNeill & Libby v. Alaska Industrial Board

This is an appeal from a judgment of the District Court of the District of Alaska, First Division, on an appeal from an award by the Alaska Industrial Board, hereafter called the Board. The judgment is based, in part, on an unquestioned fact that Lathourakis, hereafter called the employee, while in appellant’s employ as a commercial fisherman during the salmon fishing season of 1948, at Bristol Bay, Alaska, on July 16, 1948, was injured by a collision between the fishing boat, which he then occupied and which was then being towed by a power boat, and the fish scow or barge to which the fish from the fishing boat were being taken for delivery.

For this single injury the employee recovered judgment (a) of $2,005.00, with interest in the amount of $159.99, less $1,-050.00 already paid the employee as compensation for total temporary disability, and (b) of $3,600 for a 50% permanent disability, together with the employee’s costs, which include an attorney’s fee of $150'.

Appellant’s first claim of error here is that the Board’s award and the district court’s decision that the employee’s disability was caused by his accident were based in part on hearsay evidence in the form of…