(a) Unless a ski area operator is in violation of this chapter or other state acts pertaining to ski areas, which violation is causal of the injury complained of, no action shall lie against any such operator by any skier or passenger or representative of a skier or passenger; this prohibition shall not, however, prevent the maintenance of an action against a ski area operator for negligent design construction, or operation maintenance of the passenger tramway itself.

Terms Used In Tennessee Code 68-114-107

  • Passenger: means any person, while being transported or conveyed by a passenger tramway, or while waiting in the immediate vicinity for such transportation or conveyance, or while moving away from the disembarkation or unloading point of a passenger tramway to clear the way for the passengers following, or while in the act of boarding or embarking upon or disembarking from, a passenger tramway. See Tennessee Code 68-114-102
  • Passenger tramway: means those devices described in American National Standards Institute Code §. See Tennessee Code 68-114-102
  • Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
  • Representative: when applied to those who represent a decedent, includes executors and administrators, unless the context implies heirs and distributees. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Ski area: means all the ski slopes and ski trails and passenger tramways administered or operated as a single enterprise within this state. See Tennessee Code 68-114-102
  • Ski area operator: means a person or organization having operational responsibility for any ski area, including an agency of this state or a political subdivision of this state. See Tennessee Code 68-114-102
  • Skier: means any person present in a ski area for the purpose of engaging in the sport of skiing, Nordic, freestyle or other types of ski jumping and who is using skis, a sled, a tube or a snowboard. See Tennessee Code 68-114-102
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Year: means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(b) Each ski area operator shall maintain liability insurance with limits of not less than one million dollars ($1,000,000) per occurrence, except that the insurance need not be maintained with respect to passenger tramways not open to the general public, operated without charge to the users of the tramway. This exception shall not apply, however, to passenger tramways operated by schools, ski clubs and other similar organizations.
(c) No action shall be maintained against any ski area operator for injuries to any skier or passenger, unless the action is commenced within one (1) year from the time of injury; provided, that as a condition precedent to an action, the ski area operator shall be notified by registered mail within ninety (90) days of the injury as to the alleged violation of this chapter or other acts pertaining to ski areas, unless the court finds under the circumstances of the particular case that the operator or any of its employees either had actual knowledge of the injury or had a reasonable opportunity to learn of the injury within the ninety-day period, or was otherwise not substantially prejudiced by reason of not having been given actual written notice of the injury within the period; provided, that in any case where lack of written notice, actual knowledge, or a reasonable opportunity to obtain knowledge of any injury within the ninety-day period is alleged by a ski area operator, the burden of proof shall be on the operator to show that it was substantially prejudiced by the lack of written notice, actual knowledge or opportunity to obtain knowledge.
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