Robert J. Henrichs, Appellant v. Chugach Alaska Corporation, Appellee

Summary

The Alaska Supreme Court affirmed a jury verdict holding a former corporate chair liable for breach of fiduciary duty and affirmed a five-year ban on his service on the corporation's board. It held that any omission of repeated reliance-on-counsel language in the jury instructions was harmless, that the business judgment rule did not require a gross-negligence instruction for the volitional and egregious misconduct at issue, and that the court properly refused instructions on equitable defenses. Justice Winfree, concurring, would emphasize that the statutory standard of care governs the decision-making process before business-judgment-rule protection can apply to the decision's quality.