Ahtna Tene Nené v. State, Department of Fish & Game

Summary

The Alaska Supreme Court dismissed as moot an appeal concerning regulations governing community and individual subsistence hunting permits because the challenged regulations had been substantially amended. The court declined to apply the public interest exception to the mootness doctrine and addressed the related attorney-fee awards. It vacated fees assessed against Ahtna and fees awarded to a pro se law-school graduate who was not admitted to practice law, while leaving the fee award to the private intervenor against the State undisturbed.

Holdings

1. The appeal was moot because the challenged 2009 regulations were no longer in effect, the amended regulations substantially changed the disputed hunting opportunities, and the requested declaratory and injunctive relief was no longer available through court intervention.
2. The public-interest exception did not apply because the specific 2009 regulatory issues were not capable of repetition, subsequent regulations were substantially different, and deciding the claims would require an advisory opinion on a broader controversy not presented by the operative facts.
3. The court was not required to reach the merits merely to determine the prevailing party for attorney's-fee purposes because no substantive issues remained and appellate review would not affect the Fund's fee award.
4. A pro se litigant who has a law degree but is not admitted to practice law is a non-attorney and may not recover attorney's fees under Alaska Civil Rule 82 or Alaska Statute 09.60.010.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the appeal challenging the Board's 2009 subsistence-hunt regulations was moot after the regulations were substantively amended and replaced.
2. Whether the public-interest exception to mootness required the court to reach the underlying constitutional, statutory, and administrative-law claims.
3. Whether the possibility of affecting attorney's-fee awards required review of the otherwise moot merits appeal.
4. Whether a pro se litigant who has a law degree but is not admitted to practice law may recover attorney's fees under Alaska law.

Disposition

dismissed