Oregon court rules in favor of appeal in snowboarder's death

By Associated Press - Thursday, March 23, 2017

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A new trial to determine responsibility for a snowboarder’s death will move forward, according to a Wednesday ruling by the Oregon Court of Appeals.

Taylur DeWolf, a 17-year-old from Sandy, died in a 2012 crash at the Mt. Hood Skibowl’s Dog Leg run, reported The Oregonian/OregonLive (https://bit.ly/2nVTvj7 ). A Multnomah County jury found in 2013 that Skibowl wasn’t responsible for DeWolf’s death.

The appeals court ruled in favor of an appeal because the resort didn’t disclose another serious crash in same area, even though it was required to do so before the 2013 trial.

Witnesses for the resort claimed during the trial that there were no other serious injuries on the Dog Leg run in its 40-year history, according to the appeals court ruling.

But a man contacted DeWolf’s father after the verdict and said he was seriously injured along the same area on Dog Leg a year after DeWolf’s accident. He provided video of the crash from a helmet camera and DeWolf’s father requested a new trial based on the new evidence.

Skibowl had countered that it wasn’t required to provide information on accidents that occurred after DeWolf’s death.

The appeals court ruled that the resort should have included that information because it chose “to argue that the Dog Leg run has been safe and hazard-free for its entire history and that there have been no similar incidents for 40 years, including up to the time of trial.”