Skateboarding lawsuit set for jury trial in May

A lawsuit involving the death of a Columbia Falls skateboarder is set to go to trial May 2 in Flathead County District Court.

Casey Kent, 35, died June 14, 2008, while skateboarding on a steep bike path in the Cedar Pointe Estates subdivision at the south end of Nucleus Avenue and Second Avenue West. His wife, Sara, sued the city of Columbia Falls three years later, claiming the city was negligent in its role overseeing the design and development of the subdivision.

District Court Judge Robert Allison ruled in favor of the city in 2014 and Kent appealed to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court reversed Allison’s decision, remanding the case back to the district court to be decided on its merits by jury.

Kalispell attorneys Todd Hammer and Marcel Quinn represent the city. Attorney John Lacey represents Kent.

“My client died on a paved hill at 24 percent,” Lacey said after the pre-trial conference last week. He compared that to Logan and MacDonald passes which have a 7-8 percent grade.

“The city wrote an ordinance that said they would oversee that,” Lacey said. “We’ll see what happens with the trial.”

The trial is set for seven days, which didn’t go over well with District Court Judge Robert Allison during the conference.

“Well I can tell you, you’re going bore the living daylights out of your jury by going seven days. Juries don’t have much patience, around here anyway,” Allison said during the conference.

The attorneys agreed that it wouldn’t be possible to squeeze the trial into five days.

“This case … it’s actually four or five cases in one, because we have those settled parties,” Hammer said.

The other defendants in the original lawsuit involved with designing and building the subdivision have already settled with Kent, but are still relevant to the case due to the terms of liability. 

The plaintiff filed numerous motions requesting the court to withhold evidence from the trial. Allison upheld a majority of the motions that would limit evidence about the habits and character of Casey Kent. Allison also upheld a motion that the city wouldn’t be able to argue that it didn’t have a legal duty to the plaintiff.

The Supreme Court had established this in the appeal last year.

“The city could be held liable to Sara should Sara establish her claims premised on violation of statutory duty and/or the voluntary assumption of a duty to act with ordinary care,” the Supreme Court wrote in its opinion.

Allison stated in response to the motions that the “city can offer testimony and opinions regarding the breach of duty, causation and damages” and also “about the duties, roles and responsibilities of the city, city manager and planning board …”

The path that Kent died on has since been removed. Several others now have signs, put up by the developers, noting the steep grade.