Liability waiver doesn't shield Vail Resorts from $21M ski lift fall verdict

But the wider trend can be higher costs that keep small businesses and nonprofits from offering recreational opportunities, said Leah Corrigan, founder and managing attorney with the Recreation Law Group based in Driggs, Idaho.

A Denver jury returned the verdict against Vail Resorts last week. The Colorado-based ski resort company with 42 properties in North America, Europe and Australia was 75% at fault and skier Annalea Miller, who was 16 at the time, 25% to blame for her fall from a lift at Crested Butte Mountain Resort in western Colorado in 2022, jurors found.

Vail Resorts has agreed to pay Miller $12.4 million and not appeal again after the court reduced damages due to Miller's degree of responsibility and a state cap on damage awards, according to the company.

“We disagree with the decision and believe that it was inconsistent with Colorado law. Still, we recognize the personal toll this accident has taken on Ms. Miller and her family, and we wish her continued strength in her recovery. We remain committed to the highest safety standards in our operations,” read a Vail Resorts statement emailed by Crested Butte spokesperson Katie Lyons.

It's the end of a case in which the Colorado Supreme Court ruled 5-2 in 2024 that liability waivers don't shield ski resorts when they violate state laws or regulations. The justices sent the case back to a lower court for further proceedings, culminating in the Aug. 29 jury award.

Most recreational activities have widely accepted standards, said Miner.

“Very seldom are you dealing with a situation or an activity akin to a space monkey: We're sending you into outer space, we don't know what you're going to see, what risks we need to account for or anything else," Miner said. “Every single industry has standards.”

Laws vary from state to state and the Colorado case has no binding precedent elsewhere.

Colorado standards in play in the case included the 2006 Ski Safety Act and state Passenger Tramway Safety Board regulations. At issue was whether attendants should have noticed and stopped the lift sooner when Miller was sliding off her seat.

Miller's father, who was yelling for the lift to be stopped, tried to hold her back but she fell 30 feet (9 meters) to the ground. Suffering a shattered vertebra, she left a hospital months later as a paraplegic.

Her attorney, Brian Aleinikoff, didn't immediately return a message Thursday seeking comment.

Liability waivers can apply even for far-flung adventurers, such as the five people killed when the Titan submersible imploded during a trip to explore the Titanic wreck deep in the Atlantic Ocean in 2023. The family of a French man killed has filed a $50 million lawsuit.

Courts in other states also have called liability waivers into question. In Oregon, lawmakers worried about higher costs for liability coverage have sought, so far without success, to make them more enforceable.

Some businesses and nonprofits might not even be able to offer recreational opportunities if insurance costs are too high, said Corrigan, the Idaho recreation law attorney, by email.

“Engaging in recreation with inherent risks and agreeing not to sue is a choice — and it may become a choice we no longer have the opportunity to make,” Corrigan wrote. "That is something we should all care about.”