Appeal Denied in Skiing Injury
By Liesel Nowak
Daily Progress, Charlottesville, VA
Sunday, July 10, 2005
The Supreme Court of Virginia has refused to hear an appeal by Wintergreen Resort in the case of a girl severely injured in a skiing accident.
The decision means that the largest verdict in Virginia in 2004 and the largest verdict in history for anybody injured in a ski-related accident will stand.
Jessica Grigg suffered permanent brain damage in January 2003 when she skied into a snow-grooming machine on the Eagles Swoop slope.
She was 17 at the time.
An Albemarle County jury last summer found the Nelson County resort negligent and awarded Grigg $8.3 million.
“She’s going to need a lifetime of medical care,” said her lawyer, Bryan Slaughter.
Chris Spencer, an attorney representing Wintergreen, argued at trial that Grigg had been skiing out of control and had received warnings about the grooming machines.
The resort filed a petition with the Supreme Court in December, arguing that Judge Paul M. Peatross Jr. erred on an evidentiary ruling and in giving instructions to the jury.
Efforts to reach Spencer on Saturday failed.
In a one-page order, the court announced this week that it would not hear the appeal because Wintergreen “failed to timely file the transcript or written statement of facts” in the case.
“We were very happy but not surprised by this result,” Slaughter said. “We thought the jury did the right thing. We thought Judge Peatross did the right thing. We expected the Supreme Court to do this.”
