Donovan v. Sutton

2019 UT App 161, 452 P.3d 1189
CourtCourt of Appeals of Utah
DecidedOctober 3, 2019
Docket20180137-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 2019 UT App 161 (Donovan v. Sutton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Donovan v. Sutton, 2019 UT App 161, 452 P.3d 1189 (Utah Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

2019 UT App 161

THE UTAH COURT OF APPEALS

STEPHANIE DONOVAN, Appellant, v. DWIGHT SUTTON, JULIE SUTTON, AND S.S., Appellees.

Opinion No. 20180137-CA Filed October 3, 2019

Third District Court, Silver Summit Department The Honorable Kent R. Holmberg The Honorable Kara L. Pettit No. 160500459

Michael A. Katz, Judson Dee Burton, and W. Alexander Evans, Attorneys for Appellant Gary T. Wight and Smith Monson, Attorneys for Appellees

JUDGE JILL M. POHLMAN authored this Opinion, in which JUDGES MICHELE M. CHRISTIANSEN FORSTER and DIANA HAGEN concurred.

POHLMAN, Judge:

¶1 Skiers are known to say that “if you’re not falling, you’re not learning.” In this case, nine-year-old S.S., while learning to ski, fell and crashed into Stephanie Donovan. Donovan sued S.S. and her parents, Dwight and Julie Sutton (collectively, the Suttons) for Donovan’s alleged injuries. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the Suttons, and Donovan appeals. We affirm. Donovan v. Sutton

BACKGROUND 1

¶2 One afternoon, S.S. was learning to ski on a beginner run (aptly named “First Time”) at a Utah ski resort. S.S. had taken two days of lessons one year earlier, and because S.S. was still a novice, Dwight 2 skied with S.S. on the beginner run, staying close downhill and facing her. Julie skied ahead with S.S.’s sister.

¶3 Meanwhile, Donovan, an experienced skier, stopped on the same slope to take a picture. As she faced downhill and was putting her camera away, Donovan heard, “Look out!” Donovan did not have time to move, and S.S. hit her from behind. Donovan alleged that she sustained injuries as a result.

¶4 S.S. had been skiing downhill in a wedge, going about five miles per hour. But moments before the collision, S.S. started to lose her wedge, passed by Dwight, and began to lose control about ten feet away from Donovan. S.S. leaned back, hit Donovan, and landed on top of her.

¶5 At the time of the collision, the snow was packed powder. It did not appear that the weather and snow conditions played a role in what transpired.

1. When reviewing a grant of summary judgment, we view the facts “in a light most favorable to the party opposing summary judgment.” Clover v. Snowbird Ski Resort, 808 P.2d 1037, 1038 (Utah 1991). We thus construe the facts in the light most favorable to Donovan. See id.

2. As is our practice when parties share a last name, we refer to them by their first names, with no disrespect intended by the apparent informality.

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¶6 Donovan filed suit against the Suttons, asserting two causes of action. Donovan’s first cause of action alleged that S.S. was negligent and sought to hold Dwight and Julie vicariously liable for S.S.’s negligence. Donovan’s second cause of action alleged that Dwight and Julie were negligent in their supervision of S.S.

¶7 The Suttons moved for summary judgment, arguing that Donovan could not establish her negligence claim as a matter of law. They argued that under Ricci v. Schoultz, 963 P.2d 784 (Utah Ct. App. 1998), “a skier owes ‘a duty to other skiers to ski reasonably and within control’” and that “‘an inadvertent fall on a ski slope, alone, does not constitute a breach of this duty.’” (Quoting id. at 786.) They asserted that “[S.S.] could have taken no other actions to ski more cautiously” and that “[t]he solitary fact that [S.S.] lost control, as a beginner skier is prone to do, is not enough” to show negligence. They further argued that because no evidence indicated that S.S. was negligent or that S.S. was acting as her parents’ agent, Dwight and Julie could not be held vicariously liable. They also asserted that Donovan’s negligent supervision claim failed as a matter of law because the “undisputed facts show[ed] that Dwight and Julie’s supervision of [S.S.] was reasonable and did not make it possible or probable that [she] would injure [Donovan].”

¶8 Donovan opposed the motion. She argued that S.S. breached her duty by skiing “out of control” and by “ignor[ing] instructions given by her father as to how to stop or slow down on the ski hill.” She also argued that S.S. failed to yield the right of way to downhill skiers in contravention of a local ordinance and other codes of conduct. She thus asserted that the question of S.S.’s negligence was one for the jury to decide and should not be resolved as a matter of law. Donovan also conceded that Utah law would not hold Dwight and Julie vicariously liable for S.S.’s negligence. But she asserted that Dwight and Julie were nevertheless personally negligent in their supervision, training,

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and instruction of S.S. More specifically, Donovan claimed that they were “aware” that S.S. “was not only inexperienced but fearful of skiing,” they “should have known their child was getting tired and skiing in a sloppy fashion,” Dwight’s “attempts to instruct [S.S.] were feeble,” and Dwight should have intervened to thwart the collision or at least warned Donovan that a crash was imminent. Donovan thus asserted that her negligent supervision claim also presented a question for the jury.

¶9 The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the Suttons. In addressing Donovan’s negligence claim, the court first determined that S.S. is “not held to the same standard as an adult” under Utah law and that “the amount of care she’s held to is that ordinarily used by a child of similar age, knowledge, [and] experience in similar circumstances.” 3 The court next determined that, under Ricci, “skiers who lose control even though exercising due care” do not breach the standard of care and that “a fall on the slope alone does not constitute a breach.” In other words, “an inadvertent fall on the slope, which is losing control, . . . doesn’t equate to failing to use reasonable care.” In contrast, to show a breach, “[t]here has to be additional evidence [apart from a fall itself] to support . . . a finding of negligence,”

3. On appeal, Donovan does not dispute that a child is not judged by the adult standard, but she claims that deciding whether a child acted negligently is a question of fact for the jury. Our supreme court has stated that “[t]he question of whether a child five or over is capable of negligence is reserved for the fact-finder, unless a court determines that no reasonable jury could disagree on the issue.” Nielsen ex rel. C.N. v. Bell ex rel. B.B., 2016 UT 14, ¶ 22, 370 P.3d 925. For the reasons discussed below, this case qualifies as one in which no reasonable jury could find S.S. negligent.

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such as “going too fast for the conditions” or “not watching where [the skier is] going.” Indeed, the plaintiff “must have evidence of [the defendant’s] failure to use reasonable care before the sudden, unexpected fall.”

¶10 Looking at the evidence submitted by the parties, the district court determined that “the only thing [it] showed . . . is that [S.S.,] as a nine-year-old beginner skier, was not able to maintain her wedge and . . . then fell” and that such conduct was “not a failure to use reasonable care” under Ricci. Because S.S. was “inadvertently . . . not able to maintain [her] wedge,” which led her to accelerate, lean back, and ultimately collide with Donovan, the court concluded that the facts “do not state a claim for negligence . . . or failure to exercise reasonable care” by S.S. Thus, the court determined that no reasonable jury could conclude on the evidence that S.S.

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Related

Donovan v. Sutton
2021 UT 58 (Utah Supreme Court, 2021)

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Bluebook (online)
2019 UT App 161, 452 P.3d 1189, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/donovan-v-sutton-utahctapp-2019.