By Hailey Konnath

Law360 (April 13, 2020, 5:26 PM EDT ) Vail Resorts Management Co. is refusing to refund skiers' passholder fees even though it closed all of its mountain resorts indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic, a skier has told a California federal court, slamming the move as "unconscionable" as the economy tanks and a violation of California consumer protection laws.

Vail Resorts operates more than 30 ski resorts across the United States and offers "Epic Passes" for unlimited skiing that cost anywhere from $67 for a day to $979 for the year, according to the putative class action lodged Friday by California resident and passholder Brian Hunt.

On March 25, Vail Resorts announced it was closing all of its mountain resorts for the rest of the 2019-2020 winter ski season. However, it has no plans to refund any consumers for their lost mountain resort access or allow them to transfer passes to another ski season, Hunt said in the suit.

That means customers who didn't have a chance to use all of their purchased passes get "zero consideration or compensation for their inability to use those unused, purchased days, even if they wanted to," Hunt said.

"Resultingly, defendant has unjustly enriched itself by retaining passholder fees of hundreds of thousands of consumers — while denying passholders all access to all of defendant's mountain resorts," he said.

Hunt is looking to represent a nationwide class of Vail ski resort passholders who purchased passes for the 2019-2020 season and who hadn't used all of the days remaining on their passes when the resorts shut down last month. He also wants to represent a subclass of California passholders, he said in his complaint.

Per his suit, Hunt has a $499 annual season pass for the company's Lake Tahoe resort. His pass permitted mountain access from October 2019 to June 2020 as long as there was snow, he said.

Hunt said he signed up for the annual pass with the expectation that he would be able to ski until June, and that he wouldn't have paid for it if he knew he wouldn't have access for several months.

He said he "continues to face imminent harm, as defendant retains annual passholders' season pass fees while all of its resorts remain closed."

Hunt is alleging breach of express warranties, negligent misrepresentation, fraud, unjust enrichment and breach of contract.

On April 1, Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz announced the company was furloughing nearly all of its year-round hourly employees for at least one to two months without pay. The company is also cutting the pay of its salaried employees, while Katz and the board of directors go without compensation for the next six months, according to a statement.

"I have made decisions over the last few weeks that I never could have anticipated in my nearly 30 years working in the ski business," Katz said in the statement.

Counsel for Hunt didn't immediately return requests for comment Monday.

A spokesperson for Vail Resorts on Monday declined to comment on the suit, but pointed to an email Chief Marketing Officer Kirsten Lynch sent to passholders late last month.

In the letter, Lynch said the company is "committed to identifying an approach that acknowledges this past season and retains your loyalty for the future." However, she provided no details on a plan and said the company intends to update passholders by the end of April.

"I have read your emails and comments on social media," Lynch said in the email. "I completely understand your frustrations and your concerns about this past season."

Hunt is represented by Yeremey Krivoshey, Brittany S. Scott and Scott A. Bursor of Bursor & Fisher PA.

Counsel information for Vail wasn't immediately available Monday.

The case is Brian Hunt v. Vail Corp., case number 3:20-cv-02463, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

--Editing by Marygrace Murphy.

Update: This story has been updated to include comment from Vail Resorts.

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