Opinion ID: 1237820
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: is a claim barred if the injury was caused both by an inherent risk and the ski area operator's negligence?

Text: As the statute does not insulate a ski area operator from liability for negligence, once evidence of negligence exists, the case must go to the jury. However, the ski area operator is free to argue that the skier voluntarily and unreasonably assumed a negligently created risk. [16] The skier's negligence would then reduce recovery under the doctrine of comparative negligence. In 1986, six years after the most recent inherent risk of skiing statute was passed (Ch. 80, SLA 1980), our legislature enacted a comparative negligence statute. [17] While we generally give preference to a specific statute over a more general one, City of Cordova v. Medicaid Rate Comm'n., 789 P.2d 346, 352 (Alaska 1990), we must harmonize the two statutes if possible. State, Dept. of Highways v. Green, 586 P.2d 595, 602 (Alaska 1978). Ordinarily, an unambiguous statute is enforced as written without judicial construction or modification; however, this rule is not controlling when a seemingly unambiguous statute must be considered in conjunction with another act. Hafling v. Inlandboatmen's Union, 585 P.2d 870, 872 (Alaska 1978). In that case, we will examine the legislative history and adopt a reasonable construction which realizes legislative intent, avoids conflict or inconsistency, and gives effect to every provision of both acts. Id. at 873, 875, 877. Lake v. Construction Mach., Inc., 787 P.2d 1027, 1030 (Alaska 1990). As such, we must interpret the Ski Act so as not to nullify the comparative negligence statute. The reason for this was explained in Rini v. Oaklawn Jockey Club, 861 F.2d 502, 508 (8th Cir.1988): [W]here assumption of risk coincides with contributory negligence, application of the doctrine operates to frustrate the very result that the comparative negligence statute was designed to achieve. Rutter v. Northeastern Beaver County School District, 437 A.2d at 1210 n. 6 (plurality). Dean Prosser also noted that the retention of this form of assumption of risk after legislative adoption of comparative negligence [i]n all probability ... defeats the basic intention of the statute, since it continues an absolute bar in the case of one important, and very common, type of negligent conduct on the part of the plaintiff. It can scarcely be supposed in reason that the legislature has intended to allow a partial recovery to the plaintiff who has been so negligent as not to discover his [or her] peril at all, and deny it to one who has at least exercised proper care in that respect, but has made a mistake of judgment in proceeding to encounter the danger after it is known. W. Prosser, Prosser on Torts § 68, at 457 (4th ed. 1971) (footnote omitted). We note that this approach has been adopted by Oregon. Jessup v. Mt. Bachelor, Inc., 101 Or. App. 670, 792 P.2d 1232, 1233 rev. denied 310 Or. 475, 799 P.2d 646 (1990). The Oregon Court of Appeals held that while recovery is barred for an injury caused solely by an inherent risk of skiing, comparative fault applies when the injury is caused by a combination of an inherent risk of skiing and the ski area operator's negligence. Id. The City disagrees with this approach, placing emphasis on a Utah statute similar to Alaska's Ski Act. The City cites From Wright to Sunday and Beyond: Is the Law Keeping Up With the Skiers? 4 Utah L.Rev. 885, 893-97 (1985): By extending immunity to ski resorts when an inherent risk causes the injury, the Utah legislature has pre-empted the comparative negligence statute for those risks. Thus, where an injury results from a hazard categorized as an inherent risk, the skier injured in Utah is contributorily negligent per se, despite the comparative negligence statute. Two critical facts, however, differentiate Utah's statute from the Alaska Ski Act. First, the Alaska statute omits language contained in the Utah statute: [n]otwithstanding anything in Sections 78-27-37 through 78-27-43 [78-27-38 is the specific provision adopting comparative negligence] to the contrary, no skier may make any claim against, or recover from, any ski area operator for injury resulting from any of the inherent risks of skiing. Utah Code Ann. 78-27-53 (1953). Second, Alaska's comparative negligence statute was passed after the Ski Act, whereas in Utah it was passed before the ski statute. The statutory enactment of comparative negligence in Alaska after the inherent risk of skiing statute, without acknowledging the Ski Act, indicates a legislative intent to allow principles of comparative negligence into the ski context. Cf. In re Tapp, 16 B.R. 315 (Bankr.Alaska 1981). Moreover, because Alaska had comparative negligence as a matter of case law as early as 1975, e.g. Kaatz v. State, 540 P.2d 1037, 1049 (Alaska 1975), the Ski Act's failure to specifically eliminate comparative negligence in the ski context, as Utah did, indicates that the legislature did not intend to exclude comparative negligence analysis. Our conclusion is reinforced by the statute's legislative history, which indicates that the statute was not intended to eliminate ski area operator's liability for negligence. On remand, questions of whether Hiibschman's actions were reasonable, including the relevance of her drinking and her knowledge of the risk of taking the jump, will be relevant to the issue of comparative negligence.