DIMOND, Justice. Estes, a crab fisherman, suffered a back injury at the end of a fishing day while moving crab pots on the deck of a boat which was tied to a dock. The Alaska Industrial Board made an award under the Alaska workmen's compensation act, 1 finding that he had sustained a compensable injury arising out of the course of his employment with Cordova Fish & Cold Storage Company. On appeal to the superior court the Board's decision was affirmed. Cordova has appealed to this court -- its principal point being that no relief could be given under the Alaska act because of the supremacy of maritime law. The root of the problem is found in the Jensen 2 case, decided by the Supreme Court in 1917. It was held that New York's Workmen's Compensation Act, McKinney's Consol.Laws c. 67, could not constitutionally be applied to a stevedore fatally injured on board ship while engaged in unloading cargo at a New York pier. The court announced the doctrine that state legislation can have no application if it 'works material prejudice to the characteristic features of the general maritime law, or interferes with the proper harmony and uniformity of that law in its international and interstate relations.' 3 Since Jensen's injuries were maritime, the locus being on navigable waters, and since the nature of his employment was maritime, it was determined that application of the state compensation act would prejudice the uniformity of maritime law.
