| Court: | Supreme Court of Wisconsin |
| Facts: | A father buying season ski passes signs a contract waiving liability. Then his daughter crashes into the side of a ski-lift pylon and dies. |
| Posture: | Summary judgment for defendants at trial, upheld on appeal. Plaintiffs appeal from the appeal. |
| Issue: | Does the waiver truly bar the plaintiffs' claim? |
| Holding: | No. The waiver is void as against public policy. Reversed and remanded for trial. |
| Rule: | Waivers must be clear and unambiguous, and the form must alert the signer as to what is at stake. |
| Reasoning: | Exculpatory contracts are viewed dimly, because they allow conduct blow the common legal standard. In this case, the harm was not within the contemplation of the parties. A reasonable person might find that the term "inherent risks of skiing" doesn't obviously include collisions with man-made objects that are negligently unpadded. |
| Dicta: | |