## Facts

- Running Elk Corporation and Second Running Elk Corporation operated The Lodge at Chama, a commercial resort offering guided recreational activities, including horseback rides.
- Nicholas J. Berlangieri stayed at the Lodge as part of a group trip through his employer; his wife, Carol Berlangieri, asserted derivative claims.
- Before the guided ride, the Lodge evaluated riders’ experience; the manager concluded Nicholas was a novice and warned that horseback riding carries injury risks.
- The Lodge required participants to sign an “Agreement for Release and Assumption of Risk” that purported to relieve the Lodge and its employees/agents from “all liability” for injuries, including injuries “whether or not resulting from” negligent acts or omissions.
- The Lodge’s stable staff saddled Nicholas’s horse for the ride.
- During the ride, the saddle slipped (or came off), Nicholas fell, struck his head, and suffered serious injuries.
- Nicholas alleged the accident resulted from negligent saddling and/or unsafe or improperly secured tack/equipment.
- Nicholas sued the Lodge for negligence and damages; the district court granted summary judgment to the Lodge, ruling the signed release barred the claims.
- Nicholas appealed to the New Mexico Court of Appeals.

## Issues

1. Whether New Mexico courts will enforce a preinjury release that attempts to relieve a commercial operator of recreational premises from liability for failing to exercise ordinary care to protect patrons from foreseeable risks of serious physical injury or death.
2. Whether New Mexico’s Equine Liability Act barred or limited the plaintiffs’ negligence claims based on allegations of improper saddling or faulty tack/equipment.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals reversed the summary judgment for the Lodge and remanded.
- The court held the release unenforceable as against public policy to the extent it purported to absolve a commercial recreational operator from liability for its own negligence involving foreseeable risks of serious physical injury or death.
- The court rejected the argument that the Equine Liability Act required dismissal on this record where the claims focused on negligent saddling/tack rather than the ordinary risks of riding.

## Legal Principles

- Commercial operators of recreational premises owe patrons a duty of ordinary care to protect against foreseeable risks of serious physical injury or death.
- That duty cannot be waived by a broad, preinjury exculpatory agreement that attempts to release the operator from liability for its own negligence.
- Statutory limits on liability for horse-related activities do not automatically bar claims alleging negligent provision, fastening, or use of tack/equipment that creates a risk beyond what riders ordinarily face in the activity.
- A court may set aside an exculpatory clause on public-policy grounds even if the participant signed a standard-form release.

## Conclusion

Berlangieri held that a commercial guest-ranch could not rely on a broad preinjury release to defeat negligence claims seeking damages for serious injuries allegedly caused by improper saddling or unsafe tack; the Court of Appeals reversed summary judgment for the lodge and remanded for further proceedings.


Berlangieri v. Running Elk Corp., 48 P.3d 70 (2002)