Bad break: Vatche Agopian vs. Metric Mammoth LLC

In Mammoth, things get icy during the winter. People slip on pavement, lose control of their vehicles and end up in snowbanks, and sometimes get injured in the process.

Last week’s jury trial in Mono County Superior Court of Vatche Agopian vs. Metric Mammoth LLC involves the last of these scenarios.

Plaintiff Vatche Agopian, owner of a Mercedes-focused repair shop in Van Nuys, Calif. broke his right leg on the property of the Sierra Nevada Resort (then the Rodeway Inn) in the winter of 2008 after slipping on an icy portion of the path to his car. The physical injuries he incurred that day will have lifelong impact.

Agopian, his girlfriend (now fiancée) Gabriella Steiner, and sister Lucy Agopian, had traveled to Mammoth for a weekend snowboarding trip on Dec. 20, 2008. They planned to return home the next day, Dec. 21, but on their way out of the hotel that morning, Vatche had a slip-and-fall while walking to the parking lot.

It was a winter day, 20°F out, and the skies were clear. Mr. Agopian opened the door to his hotel room and turned right, seeing the familiar “EXIT” sign at the end of the hallway. On his way out, Agopian did not notice the orange “aution ice” (the “c” was scratched off) sign to the right of the door. He continued to his car on an outer path, which “had packed snow and felt safe to walk on,” according to Agopian’s testimony. After walking about ten steps, he took a left turn at the corner and saw a window screen in the path. To avoid falling, he thought it best to step on the screen. However, he ended up slipping and breaking his right leg.

To Vatche, the path didn’t look icy, but rather like “normal asphalt.”

Mr. Agopian, in pain, screamed as he fell. His girlfriend and sister heard him and saw that he was on the ground, so they rushed to the path. “I was worried about him because he was turning really pale,” said Gabriella Steiner. In her testimony, Steiner said that a lady came by to put snow in his socks and told him not to move — the paramedics were on the way. As they were waiting, the group also saw a man approach and spread salt on the portion of the path where Agopian slipped. He too, slipped.

During all of this, Steiner was taking photographs of the related interior building areas, the injury, and the path. She was trained to do this during the time she worked in hotel safety and security in Washington D.C.

Once he had arrived at the hospital, Agopian was faced with a choice: put a hard cast on the leg, which would try to get the two pieces of bone as close together as possible, but was not a guarantee, or have surgery performed on the leg, attaching the sections together with hardware a metal plate and several screws. He opted for the latter because he wanted to regain full use of his leg.

After nearly two years, the hardware was removed from Agopian’s leg in November 2010. However, the longest of the screws left a hole in his bone. Agopian and his doctor hoped it would heal in time, but when an X-ray was taken in April 2013, his right leg still had a noticeable hole in the bone. His doctor, one Benjamin Broukim, believes that the bone will never heal to a state of full health; Agopian will have a hole in his leg’s bone for the rest of his life.

This news worried the mechanic. For the first few months of his two years with hardware in his leg, he had trouble with everyday tasks, from putting on his clothes to diagnosing cars during the day. Steiner, living with him at the time, helped him with all his daily activities and even work responsibilities. “He couldn’t get up or do much of anything. I had to get him food or help him with anything that he needed,” she said. To this day, Agopian is afraid to do the physical activities he used to do — martial arts, jujitsu, and jogging — because of the risk of injuring himself again.

Timothy Fritz, former Sierra Nevada Resort maintenance supervisor, said in his testimony that at the time of the incident he was spending most of his time on renovating Lodge owner Jim Demetriades’ chalets. He said he didn’t have time to do all the regular maintenance at the hotel, so tasks like spreading ice melt were often put on the back burner or even neglected.

Vatche Agopian sought a “fair sum for past and future pain and suffering,” according to his counsel, Michael L. Cohen. (He paid for the medical expenses in credit since he had just started a business and still owes money for surgical expenses and more.)

On Friday, June 14, the jury voted unanimously that the defendant was not responsible for any payment.

(Photo: www.1800law101.com)