Ski accidents and legal responsibility: The Spanish case

Abstract

This study classifies and analyzes Spanish court rulings on responsibility for ski accidents 1 1 Other claims against ski resorts not considered in this study have been brought for reasons such as wrong information about snow quantities, sledge accidents in areas next to the ski runs, damage to vehicles as a result of strong wind or falls of snow from roofs, etc. occurring within ski resort boundaries, and refers to court cases to propose guidelines aimed at assisting skiers and ski resort managers. Six main trends emerged from the study: (a) Spanish courts resolved lawsuits arising from four clearly identifiable categories of ski accidents. (b) Although lawsuits involving ski accidents were heard in both civil and criminal procedures, civil actions were more extensively brought than criminal ones. (c) The majority of the sentences ending legal proceedings resulted in acquittals, although the cost to defendants in the minority of cases where convictions were made exceeded one million euros in total. (d) No single lawsuit, either civil or criminal, was settled in a Court of First Instance; the vast majority were heard in Provincial Courts and only a small proportion reached the High Court. (e) The defendant was the ski resort operator in the great majority of cases. (f) Court decisions were consistently grounded only on the presence or otherwise of the factors necessary to prove either damages as a result of negligence, according to civil law, or misdemeanor or criminal injuries, in criminal lawsuits.