Elmer W. Brown v. Alaska Industrial Board, Alaska Aggregate Corporation and Morrell P. Totten & Company, Inc.

Brown, a workman, suffering a temporary industrial injury to his knee while employed by Alaska Aggregate Corporation, appeals from an order of the United States District Court for the District of Alaska affirming an award of the Alaska Industrial Board for the injury.

This is one of the many industrial accident cases arising in Alaska, an area in which the difference between summer and winter climate causes a large number of employees to engage in two different employments in the course of the year. Many are employed in Alaska in the seasonal employment there and at other times in the States.

The Alaska statute provides, so far as pertinent:

The law further requires the Board to make “findings” (plural) of fact justifying the ultimate fact of the amount of the award, it providing that the Board “shall make an award and file the same with the findings on which it is based.”

In the case, say, of an outdoor employee it is apparent that if his temporary disablement ends before the end of such outdoor employment, his award will be based on the wage he was receiving when injured. It is where the temporary disablement extends beyond the end of the Alaska seasonal activity in which he…