CARRABASSETT VALLEY – Maine highest court has ruled in favor of Sugarloaf Mountain Corp., determining that the company was not liable for a 1995 bike race accident.

According to the decision announced by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in late September, C. Gary Lloyd was injured in a collision with another biker during a practice run for the Widowmaker Challenge Mountain Bike race in August of 1995.

All race participants were required to participate in the practice session and also required to sign an entry release for the race, in which the biker acknowledges the danger of participating in a bicycling event and the possibility of serious injury.

“I hereby waive, release and discharge any and all right and claims … against the sponsors of this event …” states the release Lloyd signed.

Lloyd also signed a release earlier that summer when in June he became a member of National Off-Road Bicycling Association, stating that he acknowledged cycling was a dangerous sport and that his participation was at his own risk.

Several years after the accident, Lloyd filed action against Sugarloaf and NORBA, alleging that both entities acted negligently and with willful and wanton negligence.

He claimed that the practice/inspection run in which he was injured was not sufficiently connected to the race to be covered by the releases.

According to the decision, “The language in the entry release could not have been clearer. In his application for membership in NORBA, Lloyd not only released both NORBA and Sugarloaf from any and all liability, but also waived and promised not to sue on any such claims.”

In the race waiver Lloyd signed, he also agreed to be responsible for the legal fees incurred by any other party, in this case Sugarloaf, in defending themselves. The court thus approved $18,420.50 in attorney fees to the mountain for fighting the lawsuit.

Although Sugarloaf owned the race when Lloyd was injured, it no longer does, though the change in ownership has nothing to do with the incident in 1995, according to Bill Swain, a spokesman for the mountain. The last Widowmaker Challenge was held in 2000, he said.

The name of the race has been changed because the “Widowmaker Challenge” is a trademark of Trail 66, the American Ski Co. division that promoted that series of races, Swain said.

The current race, named The Carrabassett Cross County Cycle Challenge, is owned by the town of Carrabassett Valley and is sponsored by Sugarloaf and NORBA.

No language in any of Sugarloaf’s release forms for any event has been changed as a result of the case, Swain said.

sdepoy@sunjournal.com

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