JACKSON, Wyo.—Vail Resorts Inc. wants a judge to clear it from a lawsuit filed over a fatal 2006 rafting trip at one of its resorts.
The company has asked 9th District Court Judge Nancy Guthrie to consider it a “hands-off” parent company of the Grand Teton Lodge Co. and dismiss it from the suit.
A New Jersey couple on the rafting trip has sued Vail Resorts, the lodge company and a travel company for the 2006 Snake River rafting trip that turned fatal when the raft hit a log and capsized. Three people drowned, including the brother and sister-in-law of the New Jersey man, Robert Rizas.
Guthrie said Friday she would need time to review the case before deciding whether to exclude Vail Resorts. Right now the lawsuit names Vail Resorts, Grand Teton Lodge and Tauck World Discovery, a travel company based in Norwalk, Conn.
The Rizas allege the rafting organizers were fraudulent and negligent because they thought the rafting trip would be safe.
The rafting trip on June 2, 2006, started at Deadman’s Bar, south of the Buffalo Fork confluence. The flows there that day were 7,481 cubic feet per second, “unreasonably hazardous,” court documents say.
The raft, loaded with 12 passengers and a guide, hit a snag in the Funnelcake channel and ejected everyone into the water, court documents say.
John and Elizabeth Rizas, of Beaufort, S.C., and Linda Clark, of Shreveport, La., died and others suffered hypothermia and injuries.
John Rizas’ brother, Robert Rizas, and his sister-in-law are suing for damages including loss of income, pain and suffering and punitive damages.
Guthrie said Friday she would need time to review the case before deciding whether to exclude Vail Resorts from the lawsuit. In a separate wrongful death lawsuit filed by John Rizas, a federal judge from the U.S. District Court in Cheyenne ruled last month to exclude Vail Resorts.
