Chapter 7 - § 7.2 • STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 7.2 • STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS

C.R.S. § 33-44-111 establishes a two-year limitations period for claims brought against ski area operators for ski area or ski lift related injuries. The section provides that "[a]ll actions against any ski area operator or its employees brought to recover damages for injury to person or property caused by the maintenance, supervision, or operation of a passenger tramway or ski area shall be brought within two years after the claim for relief arises and not thereafter." C.R.S. § 33-44-111.

The limitations period established in the Ski Safety Act applies with respect to any claims for injury brought against a ski area operator, regardless of whether or not the claim itself arises under the Act. In Schafer v. Aspen Skiing Corp., 742 F.2d 580, 581 (10th Cir. 1984), the plaintiff skier filed suit against a ski area operator for injuries sustained in a skiing accident. The accident occurred on February 28, 1980, and the plaintiff filed suit just over three years later, on March 1, 1983, after expiration of the then three-year limitations period for claims against ski area operators established in the Ski Safety Act. The plaintiff argued that his first claim for relief was based on common law negligence, not on the per se negligence that results from an injury-causing Ski Safety Act violation, and that consequently his claim was timely within the six-year limitations period then in effect for negligence actions.¹ The Tenth Circuit affirmed the trial court's dismissal of the plaintiff's suit as barred by the statute of limitations. Id. Regardless of how the plaintiff characterized his claim for relief — as a common law negligence claim or a per se negligence claim from a statutory violation of the Act — the nature of the claim remained the same. Id. at 582. Additionally, "where a statute of limitations is specifically drafted to relate to special cases, it, rather than a general statute of limitations, controls." Id. (citing Association of Owners, Satellite Apartment, Inc. v. Otte, 550 P.2d 894, 896-97 (Colo. App. 1976)). Notably, since the Schafer case, the Colorado legislature has shortened the limitations periods for both actions brought against ski area operators and for tort actions, including negligence actions, to two years. C.R.S. §§ 13-80-102 and 33-44-111.

While the limitations...