Anita Hendricks-Pearce, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Dewell W. Pearce, Appellant v. State of Alaska…

Summary

The plurality affirmed the superior court’s judgment, concluding that the statute makes a prisoner liable for the costs of medical care provided or made available during incarceration, including outside medical care, even when the prisoner lacks the listed collateral funding sources. It also held that the common fund doctrine does not require the State to deduct a share of the prisoner’s attorney’s fees because the malpractice action did not create a fund specifically benefiting the State. Because the court was evenly divided, the affirmance had no precedential effect. Chief Justice Fabe, joined by Justice Maassen, dissented and would have held that an indigent prisoner without an enumerated collateral source is not personally liable for outside medical care.