Bouchard v. Johnson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 2 district · 12 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 16 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Volenti non fit injuria. One who takes part in such a sport accepts the dangers that inhere in it so far as they are obvious and necessary, just as a fencer accepts the risk of a thrust by his antagonist or a spectator at a ball game the chance of contact with the ball.... The antics of the clown are not the paces of the cloistered cleric. The rough and boisterous joke, the horseplay of the crowd, evokes its own guffaws, but they are not the pleasures of tranquility. The plaintiff was not seeking a retreat for meditation. Visitors were tumbling about the belt to the merriment of onlookers when he made his choice to join them. He took the chance of a like fate, with whatever damage to his body might ensue from such a fall. The timorous may stay at home. A different case would be here if the dangers inherent in the sport were obscure or unobserved ..., or so serious as to justify the belief that precautions of some kind must have been taken to avert them.... Nothing happened to the plaintiff except what common experience tells us may happen at any time as the consequence of a sudden fall. Many a skater or a horseman can rehearse a tale of equal woe. A different case there would also be if the accidents had been so many as to show that the game in its inherent nature was too dangerous to be continued without change. The president of the amusement company says that there had never been such an accident before. A nurse employed at an emergency hospital maintained in connection wit”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Muller v. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort

2. “'proper standard' " endorsed by Bouchard is not the Clover framework. It is this: There should be no liability for a ski area operator if the design of the ski run creates natural conditions, necessary to the enjoyment of the sport, and the design is so obviously dangerous the skier assumes the risk. Conversely, if the design problem was created by the operator's negligence and was not an inherent risk associated with the sport, liability for the operator should exist. 555 N.W.2d at 85 . ¶157 This is not Clover . This is not a decision that overrides a statutory list of inherent risks of skiing and replaces it with a new set of categories turning on a determination of which risks skiers "wish to confront.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Rutherford v. Talisker Canyons Fin., Co.

3. “[I]f a tree exists as part of the ski run design and does not present a danger beyond what might be anticipated for the skier who assumes the risk inherent in skiing, there should be no liability for injuries caused by the tree. The risk of a collision with a tree of this nature is an inherent risk. However, notwithstanding the express reference to trees in [the North Dakota statute], if a tree or tree stump creates a risk which cannot be said to be inherent in the sport design, the operator should be liable for any injuries caused by this danger.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Rutherford v. Talisker Canyons Fin., Co.