The Colorado Supreme Court had tough questions for lawyers representing Vail Resorts and a Texas man suing the ski company after he was hit by an employee on a snowmobile at Breckenridge Ski Resort.
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in John Litterer v. Vail Summit Resorts Inc. on April 16 at a high school in Holyoke. The case could further test the limits of the liability waivers ski resorts require customers to sign when buying passes. It comes two years after the state’s highest court ruled in another case, Miller v. Crested Butte, that the blanket waivers do not protect resorts in all cases when a customer is injured.
Litterer sued Vail Summit Resorts Inc., a subsidiary of Vail Resorts, which owns the Epic Pass, six ski resorts in Colorado and dozens across the U.S. and the world. He claims he was hit by an employee driving a snowmobile around a “blind corner” at Breckenridge in 2020.
Complicating the case is that Litterer twice clicked through online waivers agreeing he would not sue Vail Resorts: first, when he purchased the Epic Pass for the 2020-21 season, the year he was injured; then, when he purchased an Epic Pass for the 2022-23 season after he had recovered enough to snowboard and while his litigation was still ongoing.
The Supreme Court agreed to hear Litterer’s case after the Summit County District Court and Colorado Court of Appeals had both dismissed it, determining that Litterer gave up his claims to sue when he signed the liability waiver during his second pass purchase.
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