Abstract
Ski tort law has been greatly affected by the need to balance the individual skier's interest in safe recreation against the interests of the resort and the public in profiting from the provision of facilities for an exhilarating but occasionally hazardous sport. This article has attempted to trace the development of the law as it balanced those interests in a changing industry. The changes in skiing have led to a trend in tort law from the "inherent risks" standard of Wright v. Mt. Mansfield Lift, Inc. to the general negligence principles relied on in Sunday v. Stratton. All cases, of course, have not followed this trend from assumption of risk to comparative negligence. Moreover, this trend is complicated by the enactment of statutes intended to move the basis of liability back to assumption of risk. Because of these statutes, the inherent risks standard remains a dominant theory in deciding ski tort law cases. In ski equipment cases, however, the inherent risks standard appears to have been almost completely discarded in favor of comparative negligence.
Recommended Citation
Feuerhelm, Kent; Lund, John; Chalat, James H.; and Kunz, Marco B.
(1985)
"From Wright to Sunday and Beyond: Is the Law
Keeping Up With the Skiers,"
Utah Law Review: Vol. 1985:
No.
4, Article 6.
Available at:
https://dc.law.utah.edu/ulr/vol1985/iss4/6