Barr v. Mt Brighton, Inc

In Barr v. Mt Brighton, Inc, 215 Mich. App. 512, 516; 546 N.W.2d 273 (1996), a skier hit a tree within a cluster of trees that the defendant considered an out-of-bounds area but that was not fenced off or marked as closed as the plaintiff claimed was required by the SASA. The plaintiff argued that, because of that noncompliance, the defendant was not entitled to the protection of the act's assumption of the risk clause, MCL 408.342(2); MSA 18.483(22)(2). Writing for this Court, Judge, now Justice, Markman found that the act does not condition application of the assumption of risk provision on compliance with other sections of the act; that, by the mere act of skiing, the plaintiff assumed the risk that he would be injured colliding with a tree, which is a danger enumerated by the statute; and that the defendant was not required to mark as "closed" an area that was never "open." Barr, 215 Mich. App. at 519, 522.