Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Overlawyered

August 3rd, 2008 at 8:10 pm

Update: Suit against 8 year old skier settled

The boy’s parents, Robb and Susan Swimm of Colorado, have agreed to a $25,000 settlement. (Matthew Heller, On Point News, Jul. 22). Earlier: Dec. 28, Jan. 3.


In ;
December 19th, 2007 at 1:28 pm

Contracts no good in Utah: Rothstein v. Snowbird Corp.

» by Ted Frank

In a 3-2 decision, the Utah Supreme Court has held a liability waiver unenforceable, and permitted a skier to sue a resort for his injuries in a skiing accident, notwithstanding his agreement to the contrary by disingenuously expanding a state assumption-of-the-risk statute for ski resorts to forbid any contractual modification of liability. When even Utah refuses to honor contracts, you know we’re in trouble.

Edited to add: For some reason, multiple commenters who haven’t read the opinion are claiming that the only thing the opinion does is require a signature. Not so: Rothstein explicitly signed a release, and the release only covered negligence (permitting Rothstein to sue for intentional torts). Rothstein realized the benefit of the bargain, by getting season tickets for a considerably cheaper price than he would have been able to if the resort knew he wasn’t going to honor his end of the bargain. The Utah Supreme Court (not an intermediate appellate court) rewrote the agreement retroactively. Consumers are hurt.


In ; ; ;