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16 Alaska B. Rag 1 (1992)

handle is hein.barjournals/askabar0016 and id is 1 raw text is: COLUMNS Probate, bankruptcy, IOLTA, estate planning, people, movies, judo negotiating, and the TVBA Strange things done in the midnight sun Southeastern f judge ponders canine custody in a howling good case Thera once was a bird dogso *d Recau.e his ownera wore mad. Tocourttheporeoltadidigo, Sohey couldknov, Whelber their Chesele bunked with moa. or dad. -D84 Bmnch Lawyers and judges are accus. tomed to strange proceedings in Alaska's courts, and the following case might certainly stand as one of those. Ketchikan attorney Dan Branch procured the decision and provided it to the Bar Rag. The case was brought before the First Judicial District at Wrangell, with Judge Thomas M. Jahnke presiding. It began as a routine divorce proceeding, until the Issue of property was raised. Or was it an issue of custodyF?? Is v dog really a man's best friend??? The following is a Memorandum of Decision and Order on the question issued by Judge Jahnke on Oct. 3, 1991. The matter before the court is a breed of custody dispute un- seen heretofore. The bone of contention is Woody, the par. ties' Chezapeake retriever. Eliz- abeth seeks Woody's custody (and, dogs being dogs, his com- panionship) while James op- poses, unintentionally evoking (1985). In Justice Neely's analy- chauvinistic images of a male sis is the kernel from which a and his dog, and arguing by the common theory of mawmalian by that Woody is a chattel to be custody might evolve. divided along with other ansets. Our judiciary, though lectured Sometimes law is like science, by Justice Neely at the Alaska and while physicists seek a Uni. Judicial Conference in 1985 on fled Field Theory to explain the primary caretaker custody both gravity and electromag- rule, has not heeled. However, netism, lawyers and jurists, in that distemper is not this case at least, are in search inconsistent with the common of the true relationship between law process, which is a system dogs and people. Serendipity of elementary principles and of reigns. Justice Neely has writ- general judicial truths which ten eloquently to advance the are continually expanding with primary caretaker custody rule, the progress of society, and See R. Neely, The Primary Care. adapting themselves to the taker Parent Rule: Child Cun- gradual changes of trade and tody and the Dynamics of Greed, 1commerce and the mechanic 3 Yale L. & Poly Roy. 168 MORE STRANGE THINGS IN THE BAR AND BENCH The D.A. lags behind Page 16 On the record Page 17 In crime's world Page 19 AJlsk I A8ocIIUo P.O. Box 100371 l An choe A1011015110 arts and the exigencies and us. ages of the country... In re Burkell, 2 Alaska 108, 117 (D. Alaska 1903.) There has, to this point in the tenth decade of the twentieth century, been suffi- cieant progress of society, id., to support judicial adoption and application of Justice Neely's analysis, at least to dogs. Much of this progress has come in the last six years. For it was as recently as 1985 that the Alaska Supreme Court hounded a wrongful death claimant out of court with the observation that the subjective estimation Continued on page 14 No.Pofll Orgonlaflon UJ. PoW* Pid Po'ndl N..401 Anchmorae, Alska SERIOUS MATTERS INSIDE Convention news. ALPS pays dividend. Bar benefit plans doing well. New twists on torts & Indigents. CLE honors 161. New Judge assigned to Valdez. 4

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