The tragic and avoidable death of six-year-old Wongel Estifanos went to trial earlier this month, and ended with a $205 million verdict, mostly against the park and the ride designer/maker Soaring Eagle. The Denver Post has a reasonably comprehensive look at it. The case is a central part of Chapter 9 of the casebook and you can find a lot of materials about it in the “Resources” section of this site. If there’s a second edition, I’ll obviously update the book, too.

Colorado has various caps on non-economic damages (which made up the $82M in compensatory damages here, awarded against both the park and the ride maker) and punitive damages ($123M, assigned wholly to the park’s parent company). The cap on non-economic damages (which I believe would be around $600K for this case) can be made inapplicable if it’s found to be a “felonious killing.” It is not clear to me if the jury (or judge) has made any such finding. Punitive damages can’t ordinarily exceed the compensatory damages, though there are also exceptions to permit it to be up to double compensatory damages; again, I’m not sure if any of those findings have been made.

While not mentioned in most of the coverage, Glenwood Caverns has a potential waiver defense and Colorado is broadly friendly towards waivers. I assume that the judge ruled that it wouldn’t bar the claim from proceeding, but I would also assume it’ll be part of the appeal.

The park posted (and then apparently removed) this statement, indicating that they’d offered policy limits and blaming the ride maker.

It is not clear to me if the ride maker (Soaring Eagle) exists; I believe some of the people involved in it are with Altitude Attractions, but I do not know if it’s the same company.