State v. ABC TOWING

OPINION

MANNHEIMER, Judge.

This case involves the law of “vicarious responsibility” — the law defining when one person can be held criminally responsible for the conduct of another. More specifically, this case presents the question of whether a business run by a sole proprietor is an “organization” under AS 11.16.130(a), a statute which declares that organizations are criminally responsible for certain acts of their agents. We hold that a sole proprietorship is not an “organization” for purposes of AS 11.16.130(a).

Rodney E. Lewis does business as “ABC Towing”. When one of Lewis’s employees…