Miller v. Arnal Corp.

Clint Miller (plaintiff) contracted frostbite during a snowstorm on an overnight hiking trip and stayed on the mountain with a companion while others sought help from the Snow Bowl Lodge (Lodge), operated by Arnal Corporation (Arnal) (defendant); the Lodge's ski patrol began gathering rescue supplies and planned to use the chairlift, but the Lodge's manager refused to restart the chairlift due to dangerously high winds from another storm. A sheriff's search party, separately notified, eventually found Miller and his companion the next morning, but the delay resulted in Miller suffering severe hypothermia and frostbite requiring extensive amputations; Miller sued Arnal for negligently terminating the rescue, and the jury, instructed that a gratuitous rescuer may abandon efforts unless doing so worsens the victim's position, found for Arnal.