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Alaska: Statute Affording No Death Benefits to Non-Dependent Parents Is Constitutional

May 18, 2018 (1 min read)

A provision in the Alaska Workers’ Compensation Act (Alaska Stat., § 23.30.055) that bars a non-dependent parent from suing the employer for negligence allegedly associated with the death of an employed child is constitutional, held the Supreme Court of Alaska, in spite of the fact that the same non-dependent parents is not entitled to any workers’ compensation death benefits. The Court, quoting Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, said tradeoffs were inevitable within the “grand bargain.” The mother’s wrongful death claim was derivative of her daughter’s work-related injuries. As such the employer could not be sued. 

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance. 

See Burke v. Raven Elec., 2018 Alas. LEXIS 64 (May 11, 2018)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, §§ 100.05, 101.02.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see



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