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INI to hire Carole Sookiayak, Burke’s companion and the daughter
of the mayor of Shaktoolik, at a salary of $2,000 per month.
On the date of Burke's death, the buy-sell agreement by its
terms obligated petitioner to purchase Burke's stock from his
estate for $150,000. No later than July 1984, petitioner told
Thorpe that INI would not pay a bonus to Burke's estate because
the bonus was not due until completion of the Shaktoolik projects
and because INI needed the money to pay Ronimus. As a result,
Thorpe did not expect that the estate would receive a bonus, but
he did expect that the estate would receive $150,000 for the sale
of Burke’s stock in INI.
By letter dated September 25, 1984, Mutual Life denied
petitioner’s application for payment of the insurance policy on
Burke’s life. The stated grounds for the denial were that Burke
had failed to disclose on his application that he had been
treated for chest pains and self-inflicted wrist wounds and that
he was a member of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Petitioner filed a lawsuit for breach of contract to hold
Mutual Life liable for the $100,000 face value of the insurance
policy on Burke’s life. A jury returned a verdict of no
liability in favor of Mutual Life. In December 1990, the Alaska
Supreme Court affirmed the jury verdict. See Petersen v. Mutual
Life Ins. Co., 803 P.2d 406 (Alaska 1990). Under rule 82 of the
Alaska Rules of Civil Procedure, which allows a successful
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