Photo: Mark Bosky//Unsplash
A years-long court battle concluded last week between Vail Resorts and a Colorado skier who was left paralyzed after falling from a chairlift in 2022. The Colorado jury awarded Annie Miller $12.4 million. She was 16 when her accident occurred at Crested Butte, overturning a 2023 decision in court that cited the resort’s liability waiver had absolved the mountain of duty of care and negligence.
Miller’s 2022 accident occurred when she sat down on the Paradise chair lift with her father one March afternoon. Miller was reportedly unable to settle into the chair and although she had called for help, nobody was able to stop the lift. She soon fell 30 feet onto hard snowpack, shattering her C7 vertebrae and leaving her paralyzed. When the dispute was originally brought to court, a judge dismissed the claims of violations of duty of care, negligence, and gross negligence because her purchase of a season pass included signing off on waivers of liability for the resort. It was nearly two years later when a higher court decided that the “district court erred in dismissing that claim” and that “Crested Butte may not absolve itself, by way of private release agreements of liability of statutory and regulatory duties.”
The new Colorado Supreme Court ruling has found that Vail’s liability waiver doesn’t absolve the company of “illegal acts of negligence,” and essentially split liability between Miller and the resort. While Miller accepted responsibility for possible injuries and accidents when purchasing a season pass and signing Vail’s waivers, Crested Butte was still assigned 75 percent responsibility in the incident.
The total sum reportedly pursued in the lawsuit was just over $21 million, which included a sum of $5.275 million for non-economic damages. Under Colorado law, non-economic damages are limited to $690,000. That brought the new total down to $16.5 million, with the 75 percent liability on behalf of Crested Butte and Vail Resorts amounting to $12.4 million awarded to Miller.
“It’s a good day,” Miller said after the judgment last week. “I’m beyond grateful to the jury for holding Crested Butte responsible and I hope something good comes out of it.”
“We disagree with the decision and believe that it was inconsistent with Colorado law,” Vail Resorts told The Inertia in an email. “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.”
Colorado’s Passenger Tramway Safety Department released a report earlier this year suggesting a spike in serious chairlift accidents, with many falls involving children. Following that report, the Colorado Sun looked at data made available by the National Ski Areas Association and found that the greatest safety measure to reverse the recent trend requires a simple but significant culture shift: lowering safety bars on chairlifts.
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story stated that Annie Miller was awarded $20 million. It has since been edited to clarify the court’s decision, and the laws that established the final monetary sum of $12.4 million.
