PRESS RELEASE
In May 2022, the law firm of Bloch Ongert, LLC filed a lawsuit in the Summit County District Court on behalf of an injured snowboarder, John Litterer, against Vail Summit Resorts, Inc., after Mr. Litterer was violently hit by a Breckenridge snowmobile during the 2020 ski season.
Both the Summit County District Court and Colorado Court of Appeals dismissed Mr. Litterer’s claims in their entirety due to Vail’s overly broad waivers in the Epic Passes purchased by Mr. Litterer. On September 21, 2026, the Colorado Supreme Court issued the attached ruling upholding the dismissal of Mr. Litterer’s case. The Supreme Court determined that Mr. Litterer waived all of his existing claims and lawsuit against Vail simply because he purchased another ski pass while his case was pending. The Supreme Court ruling was narrowly decided by a 4 to 3 vote.
The three judges who voted in favor of Mr. Litterer wrote a scathing dissent of the majority’s opinion. Justice Gabriel wrote in the dissent that ski areas are conferred immunity for their dangerous and reckless conduct: “Under today’s ruling, the ski industry may avoid a limitless range of liability—including liability for damages caused by its gross negligence and willful and wanton conduct and for causes of action that injured parties do not even know that they have—by burying exceptionally broad release language in the click-through, lengthy boilerplate document that unwitting patrons check off when they buy their ski passes.”
The dissenting justices likened Vail’s hidden releases to a “game of gotcha” and called the Supreme Court’s opinion a “sad day for the rights of many thousands of unsuspecting ski pass purchasers who are the lifeblood of that industry.”
“Mr. Litterer is profoundly disappointed by the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the dismissal of his case merely because he decided to return to Breckenridge to snowboard while his case was ongoing,” said his attorney Joseph Bloch. “No other industry or landowner is allowed to knowingly operate in such a dangerous and reckless manner toward the paying public, and be allowed complete impunity and immunity for injuries caused by their knowingly wrongful conduct. This is a classic approach of profit over safety in a billion-dollar industry that is already inherently dangerous.”
“Although the Litterer case was decided on the limited issue of contract interpretation, it appears from the dissent that the Supreme Court may be moving toward disfavoring these broad, blanket immunity releases that only favor the ski areas and not their guests,” said attorney Trent Ongert.
In light of the Supreme Court’s ruling, Vail Resorts is expected to seek its costs against Mr. Litterer of over $60,000.
Mr. Litterer’s attorneys Joseph Bloch and Trent Ongert can be reached at 303-331-1700 (office), or on their cell phones: 303-808-5776 (Joe) and 303-517-8772 (Trent).
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