Salt Lake City, September 2006 - A 66-year-old man agreed to accept a $1,250,000 settlement to resolve his claims against a local ski area. The man was injured while on a ski vacation in Utah when he unknowingly skied off a 12-foot, man-made wall of snow. The ski area had constructed the wall near the bottom of one of its snowboard terrain park as part of its seating for a snowboarding competition. After removing the seating they neglected to remove the wall of snow and also neglected to put up any warnings or signs. Our client was traversing the terrain park to return to his condo at the end of the day when he dropped off the wall. He landed on his back and severed his spinal cord, resulting in paralysis from the chest down.
To reach the point of the accident the man had skied under a rope that divided the terrain park from an adjoining ski run. The Defendant ski resort argued that passing under the rope was a knowing disregard of its boundaries, which should defeat the man's claims. An aggressive on-site investigation and review of the resort's documents allowed Eisenberg Gilchrist & Morton's attorneys to determine that the area was open at the time of the accident and that the rope was placed as a courtesy for skiers.
A video taken of other skiers using the area was one of the keys to convincing the Defendant resort to settle the case. EG&M attorney David Cutt was lead counsel on the case.
