Gwyneth Paltrow's highly publicised ski collision trial hinges upon the word "uphill" and a set of universal rules of conduct applying to people partaking in inherently risky snow sports, where those downhill have right of way.
Key points:
- Under the snow code of conduct, those downhill or ahead on the slope have right of way
- Legal teams for Paltrow and Sanderson have called in experts, written equations on whiteboards and created animations to try to prove their case
- Trials involving the code are common, but usually settled out of court
Mountain resorts across America bear signs saying, "Know the code", but those unfamiliar with skiing and snowboarding have likely never heard of it.
That is changing as Paltrow's trial is live-streamed from the courtroom.
The actor-turned-lifestyle-influencer was accused of crashing into a fellow skier during a 2016 family trip to the upscale, skiers-only Deer Valley Resort in Utah. The celebrity trial is on day six and is expected to conclude on Thursday.
Trial testimony has repeatedly touched on skier's etiquette — especially sharing contact information after a collision and ski turn radiuses — in the most high-profile ski collision trial in recent history.
About 100 code-related lawsuits are playing out now outside the spotlight. Most cases are settled before going to trial.
Throughout Paltrow's trial, the word "uphill" has emerged as synonymous with "guilty," as attorneys focused on one of the code's main tenets: The skier downhill or ahead on a slope has the right of way.
Rather than focus solely on the question of who hit who, attorneys have questioned nearly every witness — from Paltrow's private ski instructors to doctors for the man suing her — about which skier was downhill at the time of the collision.
After initially suing Paltrow for $US3.1 million ($4.65 million), retired optometrist Terry Sanderson is now suing for at least $US300,000 in damages.
Paltrow has countersued for $US1 and attorney fees, claiming Mr Sanderson ran into her.
In court, attorneys on both sides repeated the term "downhill" to try to persuade the jury that their client had the right of way.
The question has become a focal point of the trial, as both sides call legions of family members, friends and doctors to testify in Park City — the posh Rocky Mountain resort town that draws a throng of celebrities each year for the Sundance Film Festival.
Paltrow's position on the slope was central to the questioning of her teenage children — 16-year-old Moses and 18-year-old Apple Martin.
In depositions read by attorneys in court on Tuesday, the children both testified that they did not see the moment of the crash. Before it happened, Moses Martin said, he saw a man uphill from his mother.
"I was following my instructor but didn't know what was going on," Mr Martin, who was nine at the time, said.
His instructor testified that he did not witness the moment of the crash either but approached Paltrow and Mr Sanderson afterwards.
Apple Martin, then 11, remembered that her mother was in a "state of shock" after the collision and that she used an expletive to say that a man hit her on the run.
Artists, biomechanical engineers, called upon to argue case
To support Paltrow's version of events, specifically that she was downhill when the crash happened, her defence team commissioned artists to render advanced animations.
Because no video footage was included as evidence, the recollections of a ski buddy of Mr Sanderson's who claims to be the sole eyewitness has become a sticking point for Paltrow's team.
In addition to sharing animations, Paltrow's team undercut the man's testimony by calling on experts, arguing that she was downhill.
Over objections from Mr Sanderson's attorneys, the court allowed Paltrow's team to play three of the seven high-resolution animations on a projector positioned between witnesses and the jury box — showing the pruning on Deer Valley's aspen trees, children's ski coats and groomed snow on the beginner run where Mr Sanderson and Paltrow crashed.
Irving Scher, a biomechanical engineer hired by Paltrow's defence team, drew stick figures and line graphs on a whiteboard and jotted down equations calculating force and torque to argue that science supported her account.
"Ms Paltrow's version of events is consistent with the laws of physics," Dr Scher testified on Tuesday.
In an equally theatrical display last week, Mr Sanderson's lawyers tried but failed to rope Paltrow into a re-enactment of events when the judge put the kibosh on it.
While there are minor differences in state laws when it comes down to finding fault, "in court, it becomes a question of who was the uphill skier", said Denver attorney Jim Chalat.
"It's the uphill skier who is almost always in a position to cause the crash.
"If you're skiing too fast for your own ability and you can't carve out a turn, and you hit someone, you're going to be in trouble."
Still, crashes between skiers are rare. Most incidents resulting in injuries or death occur when skiers or snowboarders slam into stationary objects, usually trees.
Collisions involving people represent only about 5 per cent of skier injuries, Mr Chalat said.
Experts at the Paltrow trial have argued that the National Ski Areas Association's more than 60-year-old code is ubiquitous, with similar etiquette in Canada, Australia and parts of Europe.
The responsibility code was recently updated to urge skiers involved in a collision to share contact information with each other and a ski area employee.
Last week, Paltrow was grilled by Mr Sanderson's attorneys for leaving the collision without first exchanging information with him.
She said she knew one of the family's ski instructors handled that for her.
Very few cases target the ski resorts where crashes occurred because of the inherent dangers that come with skiing and snowboarding, Los Angeles attorney John Morgan of the firm Morgan & Morgan said.
The mountain where the Paltrow-Sanderson collision happened, Deer Valley, was removed from the lawsuit in part because skiers absolve resorts of responsibility by agreeing to a set of rules on the back of every lift ticket.
"It's like going to a baseball game, and you get hit in the head by a foul ball. You know by sitting there that there's some risk of that happening," he said.
AP
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiYGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIzLTAzLTI5L2d3eW5ldGgtcGFsdHJvdy1za2ktdHJpYWwtaGluZ2VzLW9uLXVwaGlsbC1jb2RlLzEwMjE2MjM1ONIBKGh0dHBzOi8vYW1wLmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvYXJ0aWNsZS8xMDIxNjIzNTg?oc=5
2023-03-29 09:18:59Z
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