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Full Opinion
United States Court of Appeals
For the First Circuit
No. 18-1409
THOMAS JACKSON MILLER,
Plaintiff, Appellant,
v.
THE SUNAPEE DIFFERENCE, LLC, d/b/a Mount Sunapee Resort,
Defendant, Appellee.
APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
[Hon. Joseph Laplante, U.S. District Judge]
Before
Barron and Selya, Circuit Judges,
and Katzmann, Judge.*
Daniel Charles Perrone, with whom Cullenberg & Tensen PLLC
was on brief, for appellant.
Thomas Quarles, Jr., with whom Jonathan M. Shirley and Devine,
Millimet & Branch, P.A. were on brief, for appellee.
March 11, 2019
* Of the United States Court of International Trade, sitting
by designation.
BARRON, Circuit Judge. Thomas Jackson Miller collided
with unmarked snowmaking equipment while skiing at the Mount
Sunapee Resort in 2015 in Sunapee, New Hampshire. Soon thereafter,
he brought a tort suit under New Hampshire law against the resort's
owner, The Sunapee Difference, LLC ("Mount Sunapee"), in the
District of New Hampshire. Mount Sunapee moved for a judgment on
the pleadings under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(c), and the
District Court granted the motion after treating it, under Federal
Rule of Civil Procedure 12(d), as a motion for summary judgment.
Miller now appeals that judgment, which we affirm.
I.
Miller visited the Mount Sunapee Resort in 2015
following a large snowfall. Before taking to the slopes, he
purchased a lift ticket. The dispute on appeal concerns the import
of what was printed on that ticket.
The front of the lift ticket displayed the following
text in 4.3-point font:
LIABILITY RELEASE
Skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports
are inherently dangerous and risky with many
hazards that can cause injury or death. As
purchaser or user of this ticket, I agree, as
a condition of being allowed to use the
facilities of the Mount Sunapee resort, to
freely accept and voluntarily assume all risks
of property damage, personal injury, or death
resulting from their inherent or any other
risks or dangers. I RELEASE MOUNT SUNAPEE
RESORT, its parent companies, subsidiaries,
affiliates, officers, directors, employees
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and agents FROM ANY AND ALL LIABILITY OF ANY
KIND INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE which may result
from conditions on or about the premises,
operation of the ski area or its facilities
[sic] or from my participation in skiing or
other winter sports, accepting for myself the
full and absolute responsibility for all
damages or injury of any kind which may result
from any cause. Further I agree that any claim
which I bring against Mount Sunapee Resort,
its officers, directors, employees or agents
shall be brought only in Federal or State
courts in the State of New Hampshire. I agree
my likeness may be used for promotional
purposes.
MOUNT SUNAPEE CARES, SKI RESPONSIBLY AND
ALWAYS IN CONTROL.
RECKLESS SKIING WILL RESULT IN LOSS OF TICKET
NON-TRANSFERRABLE: Use by a non-purchaser
constitutes theft of services.
NON-REFUNDABLE. LOST TICKETS WILL NOT BE
REPLACED.
(emphasis in original).
The front of the lift ticket also contained some
additional text. At the bottom of the front of the ticket, the
words "Mount Sunapee" were displayed in large font but upside down.
A large white space appeared in between the upside down words
"Mount Sunapee" and the release language set forth above, in which
details about the individual ticket, such as the date and the
ticket type, could be printed when each lift ticket is sold.
The lift ticket itself is essentially a large sticker
with a peel-off backing. The peel-off backing of the ticket, like
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the peel-off backing of a sticker, is a piece of paper that keeps
the ticket from adhering to anything until it is ready to be used.
Once the peel-off backing is removed, the adhesive is
exposed. The skier thus may fold the ticket in half so that the
adhesive side of the ticket sticks to itself around a metal tag
that affixes to a zipper or other visible part of the skier's
clothing.
To attach the ticket to the skier's clothing in this
manner, however, the skier must first peel the backing off of the
lift ticket. On the face of that peel-off backing, the following
text appears in red font that is larger than the text on the front
of the ticket itself:
STOP [a red octagon image similar to a
traffic-control "stop sign"]
YOU ARE RELEASING THIS SKI AREA FROM LIABILITY
By removing this peel-off backing and using
this ticket, you agree to be legally bound by
the LIABILITY RELEASE printed on the other
side of this ticket. If you are not willing
to be bound by this LIABILITY RELEASE, please
return this ticket with the peel-off backing
intact to the ticket counter for a full
refund.
While skiing at the Mount Sunapee resort after
purchasing such a lift ticket and affixing it to his clothing in
the manner just described, Miller struck an unmarked "snow gun
holder" that was concealed by snow. The "holder" is a mounting
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post for snowmaking guns and is "essentially a steel pipe
protruding from the ground." No snowmaking gun was in the holder
at the time of the accident.
Miller suffered serious leg injuries in the collision.
In 2016, he brought a single negligence claim against Mount Sunapee
under New Hampshire law in the District of New Hampshire, invoking
diversity jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a), to recover for
the injuries that resulted from his collision with the unmarked
and unpadded piece of snowmaking equipment. Miller's complaint
alleged that Mount Sunapee was liable for his injuries because,
among other things, it "failed to mark or warn skiers of the pipe,
or otherwise mitigate its danger to skiers, by, for example,
padding it or making it visible to skiers."
Mount Sunapee moved for judgment on the pleadings,
pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(c). Mount Sunapee
argued in its motion that the liability release printed on Miller's
lift ticket barred Miller's claim. Shortly thereafter, Miller
amended his complaint to include four new factual allegations. In
opposing Mount Sunapee's Rule 12(c) motion, Miller argued, among
other things, that these new factual allegations sufficed to plead
that Mount Sunapee had been not only negligent but also reckless
with respect to the presence of the covered snowmaker with which
Miller collided and that, for this reason, too, the release was
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not a bar to at least his claim that Mount Sunapee had been
reckless.
Both parties submitted documents beyond the pleadings to
support their arguments. Accordingly, the District Court
converted the motion into one for summary judgment under Federal
Rule of Civil Procedure 12(d). The District Court then ruled for
Mount Sunapee on the basis of the release. Miller now appeals.
II.
"Although New Hampshire law generally prohibits a
plaintiff from releasing a defendant from liability for negligent
conduct, in limited circumstances a plaintiff can expressly
consent by contract to assume the risk of injury caused by a
defendant's negligence." Allen v. Dover Co-Recreational Softball
League, 807 A.2d 1274, 1281 (N.H. 2002). For such a contract to
be enforceable, the party seeking to enforce it must show that (1)
it does "not violate public policy;" (2) "the plaintiff understood
the import of the agreement or a reasonable person in his position
would have understood the import of the agreement;" and (3) "the
plaintiff's claims were within the contemplation of the parties
when they executed the contract." Dean v. MacDonald, 786 A.2d
834, 838 (N.H. 2001).
The District Court properly characterized the
defendant's motion to dismiss under Federal Rules of Civil
Procedure 12(b)(6) and 12(c) as one under Federal Rule of Civil
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Procedure Rule 12(d), because "matters outside the pleadings
[were] presented to . . . the court." Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(d).
Under that rule, a district court must treat the motion as "one
for summary judgment under [Federal] Rule [of Civil Procedure]
56." Id.
We review the denial of such a motion de novo. McConkie
v. Nichols, 446 F.3d 258, 260 (1st Cir. 2006). In undertaking
that review, we must "constru[e] the record in the light most
favorable to the non-moving party and resolv[e] all reasonable
inferences in that party's favor." Pierce v. Cotuit Fire Dist.,
741 F.3d 295, 301 (1st Cir. 2014). If the record reveals "no
genuine dispute as to any material fact," the moving party -- here,
Mount Sunapee -- "is entitled to judgment as a matter of law."
Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a).
A.
Miller contends that the District Court erred in
granting summary judgment based on the release because the question
of whether there was a "meeting of the minds" with respect to the
release was one of fact that had to be left to the jury to resolve.
But, we do not agree.
The District Court correctly rejected Miller's
contention that the mere fact that he did not sign the release
precluded the grant of summary judgment against him. As the
District Court noted, the New Hampshire Supreme Court has held
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that an unsigned insurance contract can be enforceable even though
it has not been signed. Gannett v. Merchants Mut. Ins. Co., 552
A.2d 99, 102 (N.H. 1988) (citing Barnes v. New Hampshire Karting
Ass'n, 509 A.2d 151, 154 (N.H. 1986)). Moreover, lower courts in
New Hampshire have found that liability releases on lift
tickets -- even though unsigned -- may be binding. Camire v.
Gunstock Area Comm'n, No. 11-C-337, 2013 LEXIS 30, at *8 (N.H.
Super. Ct. Mar. 22, 2013) aff'd on other grounds, 97 A.3d 250 (N.H.
2014); Reynolds v. Cranmore Mountain Resort, No. 00-C-0035, at *7-
8 (N.H. Super. Ct. Mar. 20, 2001).
Similarly, the District Court correctly rejected
Miller's contention that the fact that the record supportably
showed that he did not read the release precluded the grant of
summary judgment. As the District Court explained, New Hampshire
law does not require that the plaintiff "actually read the release,
when the release clearly and unambiguously stated the condition,
and when [the plaintiff] had the opportunity" to do so. Gannett,
552 A.2d at 102 (emphasis added).
To be sure, Miller did contend below -- as he now argues
on appeal -- that the record supportably shows that he did not
have the opportunity to read the release. But, while the record
supportably shows that he did not, as the District Court succinctly
put it, "take advantage" of the opportunity to read the release
that he did have, it indisputably shows that he did have such an
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opportunity. Thus, the fact that Miller may not have read the
release provides no basis, in and of itself, for concluding that
the District Court erred in granting summary judgment against him.
That leaves, then, only Miller's contention -- to the
extent that he raised it below, which is not altogether
clear -- that the District Court erred in granting summary judgment
because the release was not "sufficiently conspicuous to
communicate its existence." In so arguing, Miller relies on a New
Hampshire Superior Court case, Reynolds, No. 00-C-0035, which he
contends shows that, in circumstances like those presented here,
the question of whether there was a meeting of the minds is one of
fact that was for the jury to resolve.
But, Reynolds held that the release in that case was not
conspicuous -- and thus that the question of whether it was binding
was one of fact for the jury -- only because the court determined
that the presentation on the lift ticket of the text that set forth
the release was not "sufficiently conspicuous" to require the
conclusion "that a reasonable person in [the plaintiff's] position
would have known of the exculpatory provision." Id. at *7 (quoting
Barnes, 509 A.2d at 107). Here, however, the District Court noted
that Miller testified in his deposition that the lift ticket
containing the release in his case was handed to him face up and
that Miller's counsel conceded at argument that Miller would have
"recognize[d] [the release] as a release." As Miller does not
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dispute that characterization of his testimony or his counsel's
concessions at argument, we see no basis for rejecting the District
Court's conclusion that
"[b]ased on the summary judgment record, the
plaintiff's concessions at oral argument and
his supplemental deposition testimony sua
sponte ordered by the court in an abundance of
caution, . . . the undisputed facts
demonstrate that [Miller] purchased the lift
ticket, peeled it from its backing before
attaching it to his clothing, had the
opportunity to read both sides of it, and that
'a reasonable person in plaintiff's position'
would have 'known of the exculpatory
provision.'" 1
B.
Having dispensed with the meeting of the minds issue, we
now move on to consider Miller's next ground for challenging the
District Court's ruling, in which he contends that the release's
scope is so limited that it is no bar to his suit. The portion of
the release that is in question reads: "[a]s purchaser or user of
this ticket, I agree, as a condition of being allowed to use the
1 Miller invokes our recent decision in Cullinane v. Uber
Techs., Inc., 893 F.3d 53 (1st Cir. 2018), which was decided after
the District Court had made its ruling on Mount Sunapee's motion
for judgment on the pleadings. But, nothing about that
case -- which interpreted Massachusetts rather than New Hampshire
law and did not deal with a similar release -- bears on the
correctness of the District Court's ruling. See id. at 61. We
note, too, that Miller made no argument below that, even if the
text of the lift ticket was sufficiently conspicuous to make the
exculpatory language known, the release was still not enforceable
because it failed to alert a reasonable person that peeling off
the peel-off backing of the ticket would suffice to manifest assent
to the terms of the release.
- 10 -
facilities of the Mount Sunapee Resort, to freely accept and
voluntarily assume all risks of property damage, personal injury,
or death resulting from their inherent or any other risks or
dangers."
Miller argues that the general interpretive rule that
the specific governs the general requires that this text be read
to release Mount Sunapee only as to the risks inherent in skiing.
Miller further argues that the inherent risks of skiing do not
include running into unmarked snowmaking equipment on the slopes.
Miller relies for this argument on Wright v. Loon
Mountain Recreation Corp., 663 A.2d 1340 (N.H. 1995), in which the
release included several "paragraphs preceding the exculpatory
clause" that "emphasize[d] the inherent hazards of horseback
riding." Id. at 1343; see id. at 1341. The exculpatory clause
then read:
I therefore release Loon Mountain Recreation
Corporation, its owners, agents and employees
FROM ANY AND ALL LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES AND
PERSONAL INJURY TO MYSELF OR ANY PERSON OR
PROPERTY RESULTING FROM THE NEGLIGENCE OF LOON
MOUNTAIN RECREATION CORPORATION TO INCLUDE
NEGLIGENCE IN SELECTION, ADJUSTMENT OR ANY
MAINTENANCE OF ANY HORSE, accepting myself the
full responsibility for any and all damages or
injury of any kind which may result. (PLEASE
SIGN: Brenda Wright/s)
Id.
But, in finding that release to be limited to the inherent
risks of horseback riding, the New Hampshire Supreme Court in
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Wright first noted that "[t]he paragraphs preceding the
exculpatory clause emphasize[d] the inherent hazards of horseback
riding" and that "[b]ecause the exculpatory clause is prefaced by
the term 'therefore,' a reasonable person" might read the release
language to relate back to those inherent hazards. Id. at 1343.
The New Hampshire Supreme Court found that the exculpatory clause
in that case was "further clouded by the qualifying language that
follows," which stated that the release "include[d] negligence in
selection, adjustment or maintenance of any horse." Id. (quoting
release).
The release at issue here contains neither of these two
features. In fact, Miller's reading of the release -- as Mount
Sunapee points out -- necessarily renders the phrase "or any other
risks or dangers" to be meaningless. See Commercial Union
Assurance Co. v. Brown Co., 419 A.2d 1111, 1113 (N.H. 1980)
(disfavoring constructions that render contractual terms
superfluous). Moreover, as Mount Sunapee also rightly emphasizes,
a sentence in the release that Miller ignores but that immediately
follows the one on which Miller rests his scope argument expressly
states:
I RELEASE MOUNT SUNAPEE RESORT, its parent
companies, subsidiaries, affiliates,
officers, directors, employees and agents FROM
ANY AND ALL LIABILITY OF ANY KIND INCLUDING
NEGLIGENCE which may result from conditions on
or about the premises, operation of the ski
area or its facilities [sic] or from my
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participation in skiing or other winter
sports, accepting for myself the full and
absolute responsibility for all damages or
injury of any kind which may result from any
cause.
(emphasis in original). Yet, as Mount Sunapee contends, this
language "very clearly encompasses and bars Plaintiff's claims of
negligence and renders his limiting interpretation wholly
inconsistent with the plain language and import of the Liability
Release."
We thus do not find Miller's attempt to equate his case
with Wright persuasive. And, accordingly, we decline to construe
the scope of the release to be as limited as Miller suggests it
is.
C.
We turn, then, to Miller's contention that the release
is unenforceable because it is against public policy. Under New
Hampshire law, "[a] defendant seeking to avoid liability must show
than an exculpatory agreement does not contravene public policy;
i.e., that no special relationship existed between the parties and
that there was no other disparity in bargaining power." McGrath
v. SNH Dev., Inc., 969 A.2d 392, 396 (N.H. 2009)(quoting Barnes,
509 A.2d at 106). Moreover, as the New Hampshire Court explained
in McGrath, an exculpatory agreement has been found to be against
public policy "if, among other things, it is injurious to the
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interests of the public, violates some public statute, or tends to
interfere with the public welfare or safety." Id.
But, McGrath explains that "[t]he fact that an
exculpatory agreement waives the right to bring a negligence action
arising out of an activity that is regulated by statute is not
determinative of a public policy violation." Id. And while Miller
attempts to argue that this liability release is against public
policy -- and thus unenforceable -- because it would free Mount
Sunapee from what he contends is a statutorily imposed duty on
operators of ski areas to warn skiers of snowmaking equipment on
the slopes,2 we are not persuaded.
Miller does point to N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 225-A:23,
but that statute's plain terms make clear that it does not, on its
own, impose any such duty. The statute refers only to a different
set of duties on ski area operators, including marking trail
difficulty levels and warning skiers "by use of a trail board"
located at the base of the mountain of "snow grooming or snow
making operations [that] are routinely in progress." N.H. Rev.
Stat. Ann. § 225-A:23. Nor is there any merit to Miller's strained
2 Miller also challenges the enforceability of the liability
release on the ground that it violates public policy because ski
area operators have a common law duty to protect skiers from the
non-inherent risks of skiing. But Miller did not raise this
argument below, nor does he explain how he can show plain error.
See Sony BMG Music Entm't v. Tenenbaum, 660 F.3d 487, 503 (1st
Cir. 2011).
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contention that the expressly enunciated statutory duties set
forth in N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 225-A:23 must be understood to
include one that is not mentioned at all -- namely, a duty of
reasonable care with respect to any risk that is not identified in
a different statute, N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 225-A:24. In fact,
that statute does not purport to set forth any duties of ski area
operators, as it instead by its terms sets forth only the risks
that skiers assume. N.H. Rev. Stat. § 225-A:24.
Miller separately contends that the liability release is
unenforceable on public policy grounds because Mount Sunapee
operates the Mount Sunapee resort on New Hampshire state land and,
"unlike the operator of a private ski area, is charged with a duty
of public service, pursuant to which it must allow public access
to the Mount Sunapee Ski resort." Miller then notes that, per the
commentary to the Restatement (Second) of Torts § 496B, liability
releases that "relate[] to the . . . performance of any part of [a
public] duty . . . will not be given effect." Restatement (Second)
of Torts § 496B, cmt. g.
But, under New Hampshire law, "the fact that [a] ski
area is available for public use is not dispositive of a special
relationship" that might give rise to the sort of public duty
contemplated by § 496B. McGrath, 969 A.2d at 397; see Barnes, 509
A.2d at 154 (explaining that the public duties contemplated by the
commentary to § 496B of the Restatement arise out of the existence
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of a special relationship). And Miller identifies no authority to
suggest that the rule is otherwise applicable simply because a
privately-run ski area that is open to the public is also on
publicly owned land. We thus agree with the District Court that
Miller supplies no basis for concluding that the special
relationship he must identify under McGrath exists.
D.
We turn, finally, to Miller's contention that the
release does not bar his claim under New Hampshire law that Mount
Sunapee's conduct vis-à-vis the snowmaker with which he collided
was not merely negligent but reckless.3 To support this
contention, Miller points to Perry v. SNH Development, No. 2015-
CV-00678, 2017 N.H. Super. LEXIS 32 (N.H. Sup. Ct. Sept. 13, 2017),
a New Hampshire Superior Court case that held that liability
releases do not bar claims of recklessness under New Hampshire
law. But, even assuming that Perry correctly states New Hampshire
law, we find, like the District Court, that Miller has failed to
provide a basis upon which a jury could supportably find Mount
Sunapee to have been reckless.
3
Even though Miller's claim is nominally one for "negligence"
he may still, under New Hampshire law, have adequately pled a claim
for recklessness if the factual allegations support such a claim.
See Migdal v. Stamp, 564 A.2d 826, 828-29 (N.H. 1989) (finding
factual allegations to be "sufficient to establish a claim of
reckless or wanton conduct, even though the plaintiffs use[d] the
term 'negligence' in their complaint").
- 16 -
Conduct rises to the level of "recklessness" under New
Hampshire law "if it 'would lead a reasonable man to realize, not
only that his conduct creates an unreasonable risk of physical
harm to another, but also that such risk is substantially greater
than that which is necessary to make his conduct negligent.'"
Boulter v. Eli & Bessie Cohen Found., 97 A.3d 1127, 1132 (N.H.
2014) (quoting Restatement (Second) of Torts § 500 (1965)). Thus,
conduct is "reckless" where "the known danger ceases to be only a
foreseeable risk which a reasonable person would avoid, and becomes
in the mind of the actor a substantial certainty." Thompson v.
Forest, 614 A.2d 1064, 1068 (N.H. 1992) (quoting W.P. Keeton et
al., Prosser & Keeton on the Law of Torts § 8, at 36 (5th ed.
1984)).
Miller argues that Mount Sunapee's conduct meets this
high bar because "Mount Sunapee knew, or should have known, in
light of receiving thirty-five inches of snow in the weeks leading
up to the accident, that unmarked snowmaking equipment, such as
that with which he collided, had become covered, and concealed
from view, by snow." To support the contention that Mount Sunapee
had "actual notice that unmarked snowmaking equipment was covered
with snow," he points to a grooming report prepared two weeks
before his accident. Miller then characterizes the grooming report
as "directing that snow be removed from the snowmaking equipment
it knew was covered." Miller thus contends that this report
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"demonstrates that Mount Sunapee knew of the 'danger to life or
safety of others' presented by unmarked, concealed snowmaking
equipment."
But, as Mount Sunapee points out, the grooming report
refers to an entirely different trail, on a different part of the
mountain, nearly two weeks before Miller's accident. In addition,
the affidavit from Alan Ritchie, the Mountain Operations Manager
at Mount Sunapee and the report's author, states that he does not,
in the grooming report, instruct groomers to uncover the referenced
hydrants because "[t]hey are not in the skiable terrain." Nor
does Miller point to anything else in the record that could permit
a jury to find that Mount Sunapee was aware that there were covered
snow gun holders on skiable terrain, let alone that Mount Sunapee
was aware that the snowmaking equipment with which Miller collided
was covered in snow.
Thus, the District Court was correct to conclude that
Miller failed to identify evidence in the record that could suffice
to support the conclusion that the "known danger" posed by the
snowmaking equipment was a "substantial certainty" rather than
merely a "foreseeable risk." Thompson, 614 A.2d at 1068. Nor are
the cases that Miller cites to support his argument for overturning
the District Court's ruling to the contrary. Each found that the
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defendant was reckless because they were, in fact, aware of the
risk that they subsequently disregarded.4
III.
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment below is
affirmed.
4 See Migdal, 564 A.2d at 828 (finding defendants to be
reckless where they were "aware of the fact that their minor son
had ransacked and vandalized their home, was suffering from mental
and emotional instabilities and exhibited dangerous propensities,
[and] nevertheless failed to seek recommended medical treatment
for him and allowed him access to an array of firearms and
ammunition"); Perry, 2017 N.H. Super. LEXIS 32, at *33-34 (holding
that a jury could reasonably find ski lift operators to be reckless
where operators did not stop the chair lift after observing a child
who was improperly loaded dangling from the lift).
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