Before Thursday’s resolution of the contentious lawsuit between Park City Mountain Resort and Talisker Land Holdings, LLC, featuring the sale of PCMR’s base and other assets to Vail Resorts, one astute local leader said with a heavy sigh, “If we do have a ski season this winter it will be thanks to Judge Harris.”
The case that had been assigned to Third District Court Judge Ryan Harris had dragged on for nearly three years and, of late, was drawing a large audience of worried Park City citizens who had a big stake in the outcome.
In June, Harris determined PCMR had indeed failed to renew its lease and, hewing close to Utah’s strict lease laws, ruled PCMR would have to vacate the upper mountain. In the meantime Talisker had found an eager new tenant – Vail Resorts.
But, with Solomon-like wisdom, Harris examined the possible ramifications of allowing the parties to cut the resort into two parts. He understood that the vast, Talisker-owned upper mountain, laced with world-renowned ski terrain including powder-filled bowls and carefully manicured trails, would be inaccessible if separated from the well-traveled PCMR-owned base with its Town Lift, terrain parks and parking facilities, all closely intertwined with the town of Park City.
He wrestled with the knowledge that splitting the resort could force it to close, which would have had a devastating effect on the local economy.
Over the summer months, Harris coaxed and cajoled the parties to come up with a settlement. When they were recalcitrant, he ordered them into mediation. Then, when they failed to arrive at an agreement he extended, and extended again, the deadlines.
Throughout the process, this soft-spoken judge resisted imposing any ruling that might preclude the parties from reaching a long-term agreement that would keep the ski lifts running.
Finally, when Harris was forced to set a value on a bond that would allow PCMR to stay on the land, he chided both sides when their estimates for the value of the disputed property were more than $100 million apart.
That was just a week ago. Mediation between the two warring entities had failed to produce a settlement and PCMR was in real danger of being evicted from most of its ski terrain. Vail Resorts was poised to move in, but could not effectively run the resort without the base facilities, parking lots and ski lifts, which PCMR’s owners were refusing to sell.
Many say Harris’ firm and fair ruling on the value of the bond, which he based on Vail’s own SEC documents, broke the logjam and led to Thursday’s sale. Harris explained to a packed courtroom that even though the case was unique he had endeavored to treat it just as he would any other lease dispute. One of the lawyers involved in the case was impressed by that. He said Harris showed that justice is best served when everyone is treated equally under the law.
There are probably many lessons to be gained from the high-drama dispute that dominated Park City this summer. But the most salient one may have less to do with the importance of the town’s ski areas than a perceptive judge’s admonishment that we all have to work together to succeed.