Nancy Hunt v. Sun Valley Company, Inc., and Frank McMasters

In April, 1971, Ms. Hunt went from Los Angeles to Sun Valley, Idaho, for a week of skiing. While she was boarding Sun Valley Company’s (“Sun Valley”) ski lift facility in Idaho, she sustained personal injuries for which she brought this action. The accident occurred when Ms. Hunt attempted to board one of the chairs on the ski lift. To mount the ski lift, she had to place herself in a position to be aligned with the chair on the ski lift as it approached her from the rear. She testified that she did not look to the rear to observe the chair as it came toward her. She was mispositioned and, as she tried to seat herself, the center post dividing the two seats on the lift chair struck her in the back and pushed her forward causing her to fall. She suffered a serious leg fracture.

Defendant McMasters was assisting in the lift operations that day. When he saw that Ms. Hunt was not seated properly, he immediately pulled the stop cord which had the effect of stopping the lift. The lift, however, stopped after it had traversed approximately 10 to 12 feet. McMasters did not attempt to swing the ski lift chair to the right or to the left to assist Ms. Hunt to align herself with the chair,…