Estate of Smith v. Spinelli

OPINION

FABE, Chief Justice.

I. INTRODUCTION

This dispute centers around a 3.38-acre parcel of coastal land in the Turnagain area of Anchorage. Prior to the 1964 Alaska Earthquake, this parcel consisted of a steep, eroding bluff and tidal mudflats. The powerful earthquake collapsed the bluff, spreading it out over the mudflats and transforming the once unusable parcel into gently sloping, potentially developable coastal property. Uncertainty regarding this parcel’s ownership arose forty years later when the Municipality of Anchorage sought to construct sewage facilities on it.

The appellants are…