Liability legal battles are big news today.
Here’s a book about one that will let you understand them.

First, let me confess my bias because the author, Noel de Nevers, was a friend and his wife, Klancy de Nevers is a closer friend. Both are high on my list of the best of us. I created websites for two books written by Klancy (Lessons in Printing, a memoir of her father, and The Colonel and The Pacifist, a really great history about the American internment camps where Japanese were held during WW II, written from the point of view of both the American officer who was responsible for establishing them and one of the Japanese victims held in a camp. My design of the book cover of Lessons in Printing won the prize for best book cover at the Utah publishers convention that year. I highly recommend both books.

I didn’t know Noel nearly as well as Klancy, and I had no part in creating his book. But it rings true to the man he was. And that man was a scientist, a humanist, and – news to me before I read his book – a canyoneering expert. A much more conventional review can be found at:

https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/review/2017/02%E2%80%8B/kolob-tragedy-lost-tale-canyoneering-calamity

Not everyone will know what “canyoneering” is. Here in the West, there are slot canyons with thousand foot vertical walls with such stunning beauty that they attract people from around the world. The Zion Canyon Narrows is one of the best known, partly because it combines that beauty with accessibility that allows ordinary people to experience it. But to experience most other slot canyons requires skill, equipment, and a lot of preparation. People die challenging slot canyons in the West. It’s like mountain climbing and shooting rapids in a kayak rolled into the same bundle.

In July 1993, two of the three adults in a Mormon and Scout outing were killed by literally impossible conditions they found in Kolob Canyon in Zion National Park. The remaining adult and five boys were trapped for five days with only one pack of the food and equipment they had. The Park Service finally rescued them with a hazardous helicopter extraction and the effort of a lot of people.

But the story that attracted the most attention was the trial between Zion Park and the Washington County Water Conservancy District – the defendants – and the victims and their families. It took three years for the courts to decide who was at fault and how much it would cost them.

Noel’s book can be roughly divided into three parts. The first part is a detailed description of the tragedy itself. If you have ever considered canyoneering, you should read this. It can be a difficult read because Noel’s life and passion as a scientist makes him leave no stone unturned in describing it. The second part, equally detailed and complete, is about the trial. I found it more interesting. Trump and his trials are often difficult to understand because the trial process is difficult and sensational news programs don’t really help. Noel provides the depth and understanding that will let you understand this one … and to better understand what’s really happening in Trump’s trials too.

But the third part is the best. In it, Noel explores the whole issue of liability, freedom, and who should be responsible for what.

When I was a teenager, I worked for a while as the night janitor at Zion Lodge in the heart of Zion Canyon. W-a-a-a-y back then, Zion Park maintained a trail to the top of Lady Mountain, a 2,700 foot column of stone directly across the river from the lodge. Right where it was a convenient and short walk for retired accountants from New Jersey by the thousands. It was the scariest trail I have ever seen. The Park Service had installed cables, ladders, and bridges that crossed drops of hundreds of feet, but due to the Park’s equipment, you didn’t need any of your own – or even any real skill – to climb what would otherwise be a very difficult technical climb. It was almost straight up. Lodge employees back then were exclusively high school and college kids full of adrenaline and testosterone. I can’t personally verify it because I never did it, but stories circulated about climbing the mountain on moonlit nights. As the night janitor, I worked from 10 PM to 6 AM, six days a week.

Today, all of the cables, ladders, and bridges are gone. As Wikipedia puts it, “it was later deconstructed due to numerous rescues and fatalities.” Libertarians tend to believe that there should be no barriers. If you want to ride your Harley with no helmet and wearing jeans, well … it’s your head you’re risking. Why should other people tell you that you can’t? The other side – I’m not sure what to call them – say that there is a huge social cost for that kind of behavior that only starts with the hospital costs and the creation of another disabled citizen.

Are we entering an era controlled by “the nanny state” where you’re not allowed to take any risks? Should risk takers be denied help when they get into trouble? What about changing the rules in legal liability and what insurance and business can do? Washington County, Zion Park, and insurance companies paid all the costs in this case. That really means that you and I paid those costs.

All very good questions and you won’t find a better book to help you think about them.