What You Need to Know

• Leona Seal brought workers' compensation and later filed a wrongful death suit for her son Nicholson Tinker's work-related death
• Tinker's estate argued that Mark Welty was presumed negligent for the accident because he did not have workers' compensation coverage
• The panel reversed the superior court's decision and said it must determine Tinker's employment status

The Alaska Supreme Court, reversing a trial court’s decision, said a judge, not a jury, must determine whether a construction worker killed in a work-related accident was an employee or independent contractor based on previous case law.

Leona Seal brought workers’ compensation claim against the Alaska Workers’ Compensation Benefits Guaranty Fund and later filed a wrongful death suit in Superior Court of the State of Alaska, Third Judicial District, for her son Nicholson Tinker’s work-related death after a retaining wall collapsed on him at a construction site.

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