Ski Sundown Lawsuit

[SkiDork]

The jury deliberated for 1 hour and 24 minutes and came back with a decision in favor of Ski Sundown.

Chris, glad to hear it. Hope the young man gets his needs met as well.

 

[Madroch]

Good news for Sundown, the ski industry and all who enjoy the sport, but bittersweet due to the nature of the tragedy-- where a minor's momentary lack of judgment engaging in an activity we all love affects his entire life. Nonetheless, the right result in my opinion... which opinion is both biased and based upon a limited knowledge of the facts.

If anything, hopefully the publicity given to the lawsuit and the plaintiff's injuries will make at least one person think twice before attempting something beyond their skill level....

 

[Grassi21]

Glad the jury saw it objectively. It must be tough when you're considering the fate of someone so young who will spend the rest of their life in a wheelchair but it sure seems like 100% the correct decision.

+1 Well said 2knees.

 

[jaywbigred]

Good news for Sundown, the ski industry and all who enjoy the sport, but bittersweet due to the nature of the tragedy-- where a minor's momentary lack of judgment engaging in an activity we all love affects his entire life. Nonetheless, the right result in my opinion... which opinion is both biased and based upon a limited knowledge of the facts.

If anything, hopefully the publicity given to the lawsuit and the plaintiff's injuries will make at least one person think twice before attempting something beyond their skill level....

+1 everything you said Madroch. Especially the last part.

 

[legalskier]

The jury deliberated for 1 hour and 24 minutes and came back with a decision in favor of Ski Sundown.

BREAKING NEWS
SKI SUNDOWN FOUND NOT AT FAULT
October 20, 2010
SAM Magazine--October 20, 2010--A jury returned a unanimous defense verdict yesterday in the case of James Malaguit v. Ski Sundown, Inc., in the Connecticut Superior Court, Litchfield, Conn. James Malaguit was 15 years old on February 17, 2006, when he went off a terrain feature in Ski Sundown’s terrain park. ****
http://www.saminfo.com/news/article.php?tid=4801

That was a very fast verdict and a huge win. Sundown's lawyers deserve a tip of the hat. The thoroughness and tenacity with which they did their job was impressive. Earlier I posted the court website which detailed much of the work they were doing that takes place out of the public eye ( http://civilinquiry.jud.ct.gov/CaseDetail/PublicCaseDetail.aspx?DocketNo=LLICV085003453S), which oddly enough prompted someone to post an insulting quip about them supposedly racking up "billable hours." It's now clear that what they were doing was avoiding another Blonski verdict.
Nice work, counselors.

 

[drjeff]

Good news for Sundown, the ski industry and all who enjoy the sport, but bittersweet due to the nature of the tragedy-- where a minor's momentary lack of judgment engaging in an activity we all love affects his entire life. Nonetheless, the right result in my opinion... which opinion is both biased and based upon a limited knowledge of the facts.

If anything, hopefully the publicity given to the lawsuit and the plaintiff's injuries will make at least one person think twice before attempting something beyond their skill level....

Unfortunately as long as there are adolescent and 20 something year old generally males, hand held video cameras and media outlets such as youtube we'll more than likely keep hearing about park injuries as a result of someone trying to do something ability wise that they shouldn't remotely be attempting :smash:

 

[severine]

Good news for Sundown, the ski industry and all who enjoy the sport, but bittersweet due to the nature of the tragedy-- where a minor's momentary lack of judgment engaging in an activity we all love affects his entire life. Nonetheless, the right result in my opinion... which opinion is both biased and based upon a limited knowledge of the facts.

If anything, hopefully the publicity given to the lawsuit and the plaintiff's injuries will make at least one person think twice before attempting something beyond their skill level....

+1 However, it's a fine line. How do you grow in your skills without attempting things beyond your skill level? If you want to grow in your skills, you will be taking risks. In so doing, you need to take responsibility for the potentially hazardous results of those risks that you choose to take.

 

[mondeo]

+1 However, it's a fine line. How do you grow in your skills without attempting things beyond your skill level? If you want to grow in your skills, you will be taking risks. In so doing, you need to take responsibility for the potentially hazardous results of those risks that you choose to take.

Something else no one has mentioned is that sometimes, stuff just happens. I broke my wrist on a stupid air bump by catching an edge, and have had a couple slight concussions and many would-be concussions (I'm a firm believer in helmets at this point.) I've seen really good skiers overrotate helis they'd done hundreds of times in the past; one is going to be spending this season rehabing an ACL because of a bad heli. Simon Dumont ruptured a spleen and broke his pelvis in three places when he overshot a 100 foot jump (by 80 feet.) The kid could very well have been entirely competent at taking the jump, but just screwed up this one time. It happens.

 

[Grassi21]

Unfortunately as long as there are adolescent and 20 something year old generally males, hand held video cameras and media outlets such as youtube we'll more than likely keep hearing about park injuries as a result of someone trying to do something ability wise that they shouldn't remotely be attempting :smash:

Don't forget to blame the Jackass movie franchise as well....

 

[gmcunni]

Great news but the lingering question is whether or not the outcome has restored bvibert's faith in out legal system.

 

[bvibert]

Great news but the lingering question is whether or not the outcome has restored bvibert's faith in out legal system.

Not that I think anyone really cares about my opinion; The jury's decision is a step in the right direction, but my lack of faith runs deeper than just one case.

 

[powhunter]

The jury deliberated for 1 hour and 24 minutes and came back with a decision in favor of Ski Sundown.

Great news Chris!!

steveo

 

[Highway Star]

You really believe that the overall trend in the ski industry between 1990 and 2010 has been the shrinking of park features/jumps? The jumps in the XL parks where I've skied over the last few years such as Mt Snow, PCMR, Breckenridge, Snowbasin, and Stratton have absolutely no comparison, in my memory, to the parks of the 90s and early 2000s.

Yes. Granted, I haven't skied every park in the east every year for the past 20 years, but I know back in the late 90's at Mt. Snow they had a pretty steep 45 foot table, other areas had some almost that big, but I haven't seen anything like that lately in a park. That was back around the time they were hosting the x-games, but not in the x-games park. They had HUGE jumps for the x-games. In the 90's, people would typically build jumps on natural landings that were at least 40 feet back - that became the target size for a big tabletop in a park. Killington, infact, currently has small jumps than just 5 years ago when they had the viper pit jumps and the wildfire park, with a (not steep) 55 foot table at the bottom.

As terrain parks and new school skiing has evolved, ski areas build kickers much flatter for less height in the air, and they really don't get much bigger than a 30-35 foot table these days. The average newschooler's don't care that much, since the short twintips make it harder to hit huge jumps and it's easy to spin and trick on short skis. Back when we were jumping on 205's, you needed at least a 40 foot table with a good long landing (traveling 60-80 feet distance) to do good tricks.

 

[drjeff]

Yes. Granted, I haven't skied every park in the east every year for the past 20 years, but I know back in the late 90's at Mt. Snow they had a pretty steep 45 foot table, that I haven't seen anything like since. That was back around the time they were hosting the x-games, but not in the x-games park. They had HUGE jumps for the x-games. Killington, infact, currently has small jumps than just 5 years ago when they had the viper pit jumps and the wildfire park, with a (not steep) 55 foot table at the bottom.

The thing right now about Mount Snow and their parks that I think is a great thing, is how they devoted all of Carinthia to them. Now at first as someone who spends about 99% of my time on the hill NOT in the parks, I thought that loosing formerly some terrain that i used to enjoy skiing to the parks was a bad thing. But seeing what Mount Snow did interms of providing a good variety of park features for ALL ability levels, and how that generally speaking as developed a bunch of park users on features of appropriate size for their ability level, that's a great thing in my book. Also they way that Mount Snow has constructed their parks, on most of their parks designated "medium" sized, side by side you'll often see say a 5 foot jump and a 10 foot jump as well as a rails/boxes of similar ability, so that you can have a group of friends using the same park where the more advanced ones have features they can have fun on side by side with those of lesser ability, and the HUGE features are off on their own seperate trails from the medium features, which is also a good design feature with respect to safety IMHO

 

[Highway Star]

The thing right now about Mount Snow and their parks that I think is a great thing, is how they devoted all of Carinthia to them. Now at first as someone who spends about 99% of my time on the hill NOT in the parks, I thought that loosing formerly some terrain that i used to enjoy skiing to the parks was a bad thing. But seeing what Mount Snow did interms of providing a good variety of park features for ALL ability levels, and how that generally speaking as developed a bunch of park users on features of appropriate size for their ability level, that's a great thing in my book. Also they way that Mount Snow has constructed their parks, on most of their parks designated "medium" sized, side by side you'll often see say a 5 foot jump and a 10 foot jump as well as a rails/boxes of similar ability, so that you can have a group of friends using the same park where the more advanced ones have features they can have fun on side by side with those of lesser ability, and the HUGE features are off on their own seperate trails from the medium features, which is also a good design feature with respect to safety IMHO

I haven't skied mt. snow for years but their park setup sounds world class.

I should also note, there is a HUGE difference in danger and difficulty level between a flattish (20-25 degree ramp) 30-ft table found in most parks vs. a steep (35-40 degree ramp) 45 ft table, due to the hang time and height in the air involved.

 

[HowieT2]

The amount of time the jury was out indicates that they had little trouble dispensing with the claims against sundown. Given the gravity of the situation the decision was pretty quick. it appears the jury did what everyone here expected. The moral of the story is that the plaintiff had his day in court, presented his evidence and was rejected by a jury of ordinary people without any bias, prejudice or sympathy for either side. The system worked. It may not be work perfectly, but show me a better way. Each of these cases sets a standard of care that other resorts can refer to in establishing their practices. Why not put some fencing and signs around the terrain park features? If it prevents one tragedy like the one in this case, it is definitely worth it.

 

[gmcunni]

flabbergasted to see comments on Register Citizen (http://www.registercitizen.com/articles/2010/10/20/news/doc4cbe6f66c35e8047334266.txt) with parents still blaming Ski Sundown.

i've met people who could do no wrong. anything that happened in their life which wasn't perfect was somebody else's fault. i guess i didn't realize there were so many of those perfect people out there.

 

[mister moose]

Excellent news. There is nothing misplaced about sympathy for what the plaintiff has had to endure, but it also shouldn't be directed where blame doesn't lie.

How do you grow in your skills without attempting things beyond your skill level? If you want to grow in your skills, you will be taking risks. In so doing, you need to take responsibility for the potentially hazardous results of those risks that you choose to take.

Coaches. Training.

There are certain things you shouldn't try on your own without training. I can think of a short list...

Rewiring your house
Parachuting
Hang gliding
Scuba diving
ski jumping
hunting with a firearm
homemade fireworks

You get the idea. I'm sure there's lots on that list I left out.

I'm all for signs at terrain parks, seeded moguls, steep terain ahead, etc. I don't think it would have made a difference in this case though. Here's a question: How many of us would expect that at his level of skiing experience the plaintiff had already seen multiple signs at Sundown or other areas describing the hazardous nature of terrain parks? The places I ski I see them all over the place. There had been testimony in this case on what the industry standard is in terrain park construction. That should be the criteria, not theorizing on whether or not one more sign, one more fence, one more (fill in the blank) would prevent an accident. We already know how to prevent all accidents. Close the ski hill.

I'm glad we didn't close the hill today.

 

[severine]

Excellent news. There is nothing misplaced about sympathy for what the plaintiff has had to endure, but it also shouldn't be directed where blame doesn't lie.



Coaches. Training.

There are certain things you shouldn't try on your own without training. I can think of a short list...

Rewiring your house
Parachuting
Hang gliding
Scuba diving
ski jumping
hunting with a firearm
homemade fireworks

You get the idea. I'm sure there's lots on that list I left out.

I'm all for signs at terrain parks, seeded moguls, steep terain ahead, etc. I don't think it would have made a difference in this case though. Here's a question: How many of us would expect that at his level of skiing experience the plaintiff had already seen multiple signs at Sundown or other areas describing the hazardous nature of terrain parks? The places I ski I see them all over the place. There had been testimony in this case on what the industry standard is in terrain park construction. That should be the criteria, not theorizing on whether or not one more sign, one more fence, one more (fill in the blank) would prevent an accident. We already know how to prevent all accidents. Close the ski hill.

I'm glad we didn't close the hill today.

I wasn't arguing in his favor. Just tempering the statement made before about not skiing outside the ability. I would venture that many on here learned to ski moguls, for example, without professional coaching. At the time they began, skiing moguls was outside their ability level. It was a risk they took and ultimately the responsibility for what happens falls on them. They don't have to learn to ski moguls-they choose to. Choosing therefore requires ownership; accepting responsibility that whatever happens after that choice is made is a result of your own actions. Nobody forced you to do it.

I tore my ACL just skiing down a mellow blue run at pretty slow speed. Stuff happens. I chose to put those skis on, get on the lift, and go down the hill. Ultimately, my choice led to that injury and while it sucks now that it still bothers me over 2 years later, that was my choice. I didn't have to ski that night. I don't blame anyone but myself.

 

[skidmarks]

Great News!!

I feel bad for the kid, hope his parents insurance takes care of things. Very happy that Ski Sundown didn't underwrite this trail lawyer's vacation home fund!!