Lawsuit sees dramatic turn

SANDPOINT — A personal injury and negligence suit filed against Schweitzer Mountain Resort appears to have taken a dramatic turn.

A trial in the matter is set for Sept. 28, although a postponement is being sought because the plaintiff recently suffered vision impairment which might be linked to the head injury at issue in the litigation, court documents said.

John Bardelli, a Spokane, Wash., attorney representing plaintiff L. Craig Carey Smith, filed an affidavit last month which alleges his client, also a Spokane attorney, went blind during a court hearing in an unrelated matter.

The request for a continuance is pending in 1st District Court.

Bardelli said in court documents that Smith suffered from severe headaches after being treated for the head injury and experienced vision impairment in one eye. The impairment spread to the other eye about a month ago, according to Bardelli.

Bardelli plans to consult with a neuro-opthomologist to determine if the vision impairment is connected to the head injury and if it should be factored into the pending lawsuit.

Smith, 59, filed suit against the resort last year, claiming Schweitzer was at fault in a February 2006 incident at the Chair 1 loading station. The complaint alleges Smith was lifted upward as he sat in the chair and struck his head on the lift’s metal framework.

Chair 1 was built in 1963 by the resort’s founders. The resort’s current owners tore out the lift in 2007 and replaced it with two high-speed lifts, the Basin Express quad and the Lakeview triple.

Schweitzer’s counsel, Coeur d’Alene attorney Peter Erbland, maintains the current owners did not design or construct the lift, and denies that the resort is at fault for Smith’s injury, court records show. Erbland further argues in court documents that Smith’s claims are barred under the legal doctrine of contractual release.