A Los Angeles jury on Monday awarded about $4 million to a Torrance woman who was paralyzed when she hit an incline on one of Mountain High Resort’s trails while skiing and was propelled into the air in 2012, causing her to land on her back.
The Superior Court jury deliberated for about three days before reaching its verdict in the lawsuit brought by Leslie McLaughlin, 35, who worked as a veterinarian before she was hurt.
The jury awarded a total of nearly $22 million, but the amount McLaughlin will receive was reduced by the panel’s finding that she was 82 percent responsible for her injuries.
Mountain High attorneys Patrick Kelly and Steven Parminter declined to comment on the verdict, but Parminter maintained during trial that McLaughlin was traveling more than 30 mph and that she did not pay attention to warning signs regarding terrain features.
McLaughlin’s lead attorney, Bruce Broillet, said he wants to see Mountain High take action to make skiing safer for other visitors.
“I hope that that the decision sends a message to Mountain High to do something about the condition that exists at its ski resort,” Broillet said.
In her testimony, McLaughlin said she was unaware of the dangers posed by the elevated area located at the bottom of Mountain High West’s Woodworth Gulch that she maintained caused her to lose control on March 1, 2012.
“My skis were launched into the air above my head,” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin said she did not remember if she read the large signs that warned skiers to be aware of terrain features at Mountain High.
According to her lawsuit, McLaughlin thought she was encountering a rolling hill with a gradual descent on the other side and that she could ski over it safely. It was actually an “unmarked table top jump” and there were no signs warning of the terrain change, according to her court papers.
Mountain High lawyers stated in their response that the small slope is a “staging area” put in place eight years ago to separate the Woodworth Gulch from a “playground” area of small terrain features for skiers and snowboarders.
No other skier reported being injured by the terrain feature in the eight years it had been there before McLaughlin was hurt, according to the Mountain High attorneys.
McLaughlin said she spent six to seven months at Huntington Memorial Hospital before being transferred to Craig Hospital in Denver for about 3 1/2 months of rehabilitation.
McLaughlin said she is paralyzed from the chest down, but can move her arms. She said she uses a wheelchair and is helped by a caregiver.
— City News Service