Libby, McNeill & Libby, a Corporation v. Alaska Industrial Board and Linda Miriam Johnson

By a decision of the Alaska Industrial Board, herein the Board, appellee, Johnson, was awarded compensation from appellant for temporary disability and also for permanent partial disability as the result of an accident in which she was injured while employed by appellant.

In a complaint and appeal filed in the lower court, appellant assailed the validity of the award on various grounds and sought a decree of that court suspending and setting aside the award made by the Board. In this complaint appellant named as defendants both appellee and the Board. Appellee filed an answer to the complaint and appeal but the Board failed to appear in the action. Issues were joined by these pleadings and after a trial on the merits the lower court, on January 2, 1953, duly entered its Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and its Decree.

By this decree the award of the Board in favor of Johnson was affirmed by the lower court.

On January 9, 1953, appellant filed a motion for a new trial.

On March 25, 1953, a so-called “minute order” was entered in the Court Journal apparently at the direction of the court, setting forth that “plaintiff’s motion for a new trial is treated as one for a…