David Graven, who died in Roswell, N.M., on July 29 at age 56, was a longtime Colorado attorney whose name became immortalized in legal circles in the Graven Rule, following his tenacious lawsuit against Vail Associates.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Graven was a senior enforcement attorney and a regional trial counsel with the Denver office of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
He secured a reputation as a particularly effective trial lawyer in cases involving the New York Stock Exchange, the National Association of Securities Dealers and other formidable entities.
On April 2, 1992, Graven was skiing just ahead of his wife on Vail Mountain’s Lower Prima run, an intermediate access trail on Golden Peak.
As Graven skied to the left side of the run, he lost control of his skis on snow unstable from sun exposure. He fell, plunged down an unmarked ravine adjacent to Lower Pima and collided with a tree.
The impact snapped his right leg above and below the knee and, in Graven’s words, “destroyed” his right shoulder.
He sued Vail Associates, claiming his extensive injuries resulted from the resort’s failure to warn of a known dangerous condition.
Graven lost his first lawsuit against Vail Associates, with the judge finding that Vail was not liable, under a 1990 state statute requiring ski areas to mark “dangers” but absolving them from marking “dangerous or hazardous conditions.”
Despite ruling against Graven, the court acknowledged that the Colorado statute “had a curious Catch-22 flavor.”
Graven appealed to the Colorado Supreme Court, where he represented himself, unable to find a lawyer willing to confront such a powerful adversary as Vail Associates.
In December 1995, the state Supreme Court, in a sharply divided 4-3 decision, reversed the lower court’s ruling.
The result is known in legal shorthand as the Graven Rule. It brought Colorado ski law into line with similar laws affecting ski resorts in Montana, Utah and Vermont.
Prominent skiing litigation attorney Jim Chalat said, following the 1995 ruling, that the Graven Rule “will improve ski safety all over the nation.”
Throughout the trials, Graven continued his work as a securities lawyer. He also brought a case against a fraudulent Maryland pay-phone firm that bilked investors out of millions of dollars.
But the 1992 accident left Graven with chronic injuries that spawned other physical problems.
He recently left Colorado for Roswell, where he continued to practice law until his declining health forced him to stop.
Survivors include his wife, Lisa Graven; daughter Katie Graven; and son Lance Graven, all of Roswell.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-820-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
