Sun Valley Co.
is sued over confiscated
pass
By GREG
MOORE
Express Staff Writer
A 5th
District Court judge has ruled that a local resident can seek punitive
damages against Sun Valley Co. on a claim that it wrongfully
confiscating his 2000-2001 season’s ski pass.
The
dispute over the $1,650 pass and an $812 charge at a Sun Valley-owned
clothing store has, over the past year, mushroomed into a two-inch-thick
file of litigation papers. The case raises questions about the limits of
Sun Valley Co.’s legal authority to confiscate passes.
According
to documents filed in 5th District Court in Hailey, two
purchases totaling $812.16 were made at The Brass Ranch in Sun Valley on
Aug. 15, 2000, using the credit card number of Larry Stone, a
64-year-old, longtime Ketchum resident and co-owner of the Ketchum
Grill. Stone claims he didn’t buy the goods and the signatures on the
purchase slips are not his. In fact, he says, he was attending a wedding
in Santa Barbara, Calif., at the time and has an airline itinerary to
prove it.
Two
months after the purchases were made, Stone signed a fraud form at the
U.S. Bank in Ketchum and the bank reversed the charge to The Brass
Ranch.
Before he
filed the fraud form, Stone met with Sun Valley’s accounting
department and looked at the purchase slips. He said the signatures were
similar to his, but were not his. In a deposition, Sun Valley Co.
Assistant Controller Kathy Kerrick admitted that the signatures on the
two purchase slips did not appear to match each other.
If the
signatures on the slips are not Stone’s, Sun Valley Co. stated in
court documents, it would simply like to find out whose they are. In a
deposition, General Manager Wally Huffman stated the company left one
phone message with Stone after he filed the fraud form asking him to
come in and clarify the matter, but did not hear from him. Huffman and
Sun Valley Co. department heads discussed the situation during a meeting
March 23, 2001.
"We
had decided by the end of the meeting we’d get Mr. Stone’s attention
by pulling the pass," Huffman stated in his deposition.
Right
after his pass was pulled, Stone called Huffman from the Warm Springs
Lodge.
"When
he told me that he was taking my pass, I was almost in shock,"
Stone said in an interview.
In an
affidavit, Stone stated that Huffman told him, "You stole $800 and
you can’t ski on my mountain."
Huffman
did not return a phone call Friday seeking Sun Valley’s side of the
story.
Stone
filed a suit against Sun Valley Co. and Huffman on May 8, 2001, for
conversion (taking someone’s property) and breach of contract. On June
8, Sun Valley filed a counterclaim for $812.16.
On July
5, 2002, Judge James May granted Stone’s motion to seek punitive
damages. At the same time, May denied his motion for summary judgment on
the breach of contract claim, and ordered the case to go into mediation.
The parties have until Aug. 26 to agree upon a date to mediate the
dispute.
According
to both sides’ briefs, Idaho law permits a plaintiff to seek punitive
damages only when the court determines he has a reasonable likelihood of
proving that the defendant’s conduct was "oppressive, fraudulent,
wanton, malicious or outrageous."
"Huffman’s
conduct in taking Stone’s pass was nothing less than blackmail or
extortion," states a brief submitted by Stone’s attorney, Fritz
Haemmerle. "As such, the court should allow Stone to pursue his
claim for punitive damages."
When
Stone bought his 200-2001 pass, language in the agreement stated that
"the bearer of this ticket is subject to…all rules, instructions
and regulations governing the skiing area… Bearer agrees to surrender
this ticket upon demand by Sun Valley Co."
In his
deposition, Huffman stated that in his opinion, those rules included
payment for goods and services. The language has since been clarified.
The current agreement states that Sun Valley Co. can demand return of
the pass "for any reason, including misconduct on or off the ski
area or failure to pay amounts due Sun Valley for goods or
services." The agreement states that the bearer of a confiscated
pass will receive a pro-rated refund.
In an
interview, Stone said he is litigating the matter on principle.
"I
don’t think anyone in the community should be subjected to what I was
subjected to," he said.
He said
his initial request from Sun Valley was for an apology and a 2001-2002
season’s pass.
"If
they had offered me that, I would have just let it die," he said.
By now,
both parties have sunk quite a bit of money into attorneys’ fees.
Stone declined to comment on how much he has spent, but said he hopes to
recoup it through either mediation or a trial.