FARMINGTON — A Delaware couple and Sugarloaf Mountain Corp. and associated parties recently reached a settlement agreement related to serious injuries three members of the family received when a chairlift broke at Sugarloaf ski resort in 2010.
The case was scheduled to go to trial in September.
Dr. Michael and Patricia Katz of Wilmington, Del., filed a suit against CNL Lifestyle Properties Inc., CLP Sugarloaf LLC, Boyne USA Inc. and Sugarloaf Mountain Corp. in October 2013 and submitted an amended suit on Nov. 13, 2013.
The couple sued the entities on behalf of themselves and their minor daughters, Abigail and Emily.
Michael Katz and his two daughters were on the Spillway East chairlift at the Carrabassett Valley ski resort Dec. 28, 2010, when the lift broke and they fell 35 feet to the ground. All three received serious injuries; the elder Katz suffered from a traumatic brain injury, and the girls each had closed-head injuries, according to the lawsuit.
A section of the cable carrying the chairs on the chairlift fell off the chairlift towers, causing a number of chairs and people sitting on them to fall to the ground, the document said.
Katz’s daughters were riding in a chair behind him when the chairs fell. Abigail was thrown from her chair after it hit the ground while Emily was dragged up the mountain by the lift because a piece of her ski equipment was stuck in the chair, according to court documents.
The Katzes were among several people injured.
In 2014, Justice Nancy Mills dismissed a countersuit filed by the defendants and allowed counts of negligence, loss of consortium, punitive damages and common carrier liability to go forward in the court.
“An agreement has been reached between the parties amicably to resolve this dispute. The terms of the agreement are confidential,” Evan M. Hansen, attorney for Sugarloaf Mountain Corp. and related parties, stated in an email Monday.
The court received documents stating the case was resolved in early June and late May from both Hansen of PretiFlaherty in Portland and Augusta and the Katzes attorney, Benjamin Rogoff Gideon of Berman & Simmons in Lewiston, Portland and Bangor, according to the file.
Gideon declined comment Monday.
In March, Sugarloaf had a second chairlift accident when a lift malfunctioned and rolled back, injuring seven people. The state is still reviewing that incident and has not issued a final report.
dperry@sunmediagroup.net
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