For at least the last 30 years, George Kitchen has made a living as an air taxi pilot and hunting guide. In the fall of 1967, Kitchen began professionally guiding in the Canoe Bay area of the Alaska Peninsula, roughly halfway between the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Kitchen and his clients hunt predominantly brown bear and some caribou in this area. In 1969, Kitchen erected a prefabricated metal structure on the Canoe Bay site to serve as the base camp for his bear hunting operations. In his deposition, Kitchen described it as ten feet by twelve feet, a garage type deal made out of more of a plastic than metal, with no windows. After bears and strong winds tore down the structure, Kitchen re-erected similar prefabricated metal structures in 1970 and again in 1971 or 1972.
This appeal involves the statutory interpretation of the phrase “a primary place of business,” as contained in § 14(c)(1) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), 43 U.S.C. § 1613 (c)(1) (1986). Section 14(c)(1) requires a village corporation, upon receiving its interim conveyance of land from the federal government, to reconvey to the occupant any land used, as of December 18, 1971, as “a primary place of business.” Since 1969, George Kitchen, later with help from Steven Hakala, guided brown bear hunts on the Canoe Bay lands to which Atxam, a village corporation, now has title. They frequently started and ended their hunts at one particular site, where they erected a small cabin. Kitchen and Hakala claim that, since the cabin and the surrounding lands were “a primary place of business,” Atxam must reconvey title to them pursuant to § 14(c)(1). Kitchen and Hakala appeal the trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Atxam. We conclude that Kitchen and Hakala’s cabin site was “a primary place of business.”For at least the last 30 years, George Kitchen has made a living as an air taxi pilot and hunting guide. In the fall of 1967, Kitchen began professionally guiding in the Canoe Bay area of the Alaska Peninsula, roughly halfway between the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Kitchen and his clients hunt predominantly brown bear and some caribou in this area. In 1969, Kitchen erected a prefabricated metal structure on the Canoe Bay site to serve as the base camp for his bear hunting operations. In his deposition, Kitchen described it as ten feet by twelve feet, “a garage type deal made out of more of a plastic than metal,” with no windows. After bears and strong winds tore down the structure, Kitchen re-erected similar prefabricated metal structures in 1970 and again in 1971 or 1972.In 1974, Kitchen and Steven Hakala, a stepson, built a permanent structure made of plywood to serve as the base camp for the guiding operations.[1] The cabin is a one- room structure, 16 by 20 feet in dimension and contains an oil stove for heat, a cooking stove, five bunks, electric lights and various other pieces of furniture. An outhouse, also built in 1974, stands approximately 20 yards from the cabin. A bush airstrip which Kitchen uses when he flies in customers and supplies, is also located near the cabin.
Adds precedent that influences how ANCSA corporations, regulators, and shareholders interpret governance rights and remedies.