Jury awards $20 million to woman paralyzed on Colorado ski lift

BROOMFIELD, Colo. (CN) — A Colorado jury on Friday sided with an Oklahoma woman who sued Crested Butte Mountain Resort after suffering a life-altering ski lift accident in 2022, awarding her $20 million in damages.

“It’s a good day,” Annie Miller said outside the courtroom. “I’m beyond grateful to the jury for holding Crested Butte responsible and I hope something good comes out of it.”

At 16, Miller was on her second day skiing Colorado’s Crested Butte with her Oklahoma church youth group in 2022 when she took her last run. She tried to board the Paradise Express Lift beside her father but wasn’t fully seated before the chair rose into the air.

By the time the lift operator heard her calls for help, it was too late. Her father could not hold on, and Miller fell 30 feet onto hard packed snow. The accident left her with life-altering injuries that have kept her paralyzed ever since.

Miller sued in Broomfield County District Court in 2022, claiming violations of duty of care, negligence and gross negligence. She asked the jury to award $14 million to cover past and future medical expenses as well as her estimated future lost earnings.

A state judge dismissed the first two claims in April 2023, citing the resort’s liability waiver, leaving only gross negligence.

The Colorado Supreme Court, however, found Vail’s liability waiver did not absolve the ski resort from illegal acts of negligence, reviving a negligence per se claim against the company, which has a lower bar than the gross negligence claim.

Although the jury of six found Crested Butte violated state regulations, it did not find the resort’s conduct amounted to gross negligence. The jury also found Miller accepted the risk when she signed the resort’s liability waiver, finding her 25% at fault for the accident and Crested Butte 75%.

“The evidence was clear,” said attorney Bruce Braley, who represented Miller from Denver’s Leventhal Puga Braley firm. “The jury did a great job of looking at the responsibility of Crested Butte."

Named for the Colorado town of its location, Crested Butte is owned by Vail Resorts and operates on the Epic Pass.

Colorado Ski Country USA estimates 13.8 million people visited the state’s ski slopes last season. But Miller’s case marked the first time the Colorado Supreme Court considered whether a resort’s liability waiver shields it from negligence claims under the Ski Safety Act and the Passenger Tramway Safety Act. Her lawsuit represented a rare challenge to ski resorts’ near blanket immunity for mountain injuries.

Seventeenth Judicial District Judge Jeffrey Smith presided over the two-week trial at the Broomfield Combined Court in Broomfield, Colorado.

Miller said she hopes the outcome of the case helps improve ski safety.

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