By COLIN M. STEWART
By COLIN M. STEWART
Tribune-Herald Staff Writer
A California woman has filed suit against the operators of a Big Island zip line after she allegedly suffered injuries when a braking mechanism failed in 2010.
Fresno, Calif., pharmacist Lorraine Salven and her husband, James, jointly filed the lawsuit on July 13 in Third Circuit Court through their attorneys at the Honolulu law offices of Ian L. Mattoch.
Among the defendants named in the lawsuit are Big Island Zipline Adventures LLC, C.L. Carlile Enterprises LP (doing business as The Umauma Experience), KapohoKine Adventures LLC (doing business as Honolii Mountain Outpost and Honolii Outback Adventures), and Experiential Resources Inc.
A separate zip line course built by Experiential Resources and operated by KapohoKine was recently the subject of a months-long investigation following the September death of one construction worker and serious injury of another when a zip line platform collapsed.
In a phone interview Tuesday afternoon, Mattoch said that he’s seeing lawsuits over zip line injuries “popping up all over the place.”
“We’re seeking damages for loss of income, for medical expenses incurred in the treatment and care of the injury, and we’re seeking a reasonable amount to compensate for the inconvenience and the mental anguish that this event has caused,” he said.
“She’s through the acute phase of the injury and she’s now got post-acute chronic injuries.”
Mattoch declined to comment further on the nature of Salven’s injuries, citing the Health Insurance and Portability Accountability Act, which protects patient privacy.
A call made to Salven’s place of business on Monday seeking further detail went unanswered as of Tuesday night.
According to the lawsuit, Salven paid to participate in a zip line tour at The Umauma Experience along the Umauma River in Papaikou on July 27, 2010. As she was descending along a line toward pole No. 4 on the course, the suit alleges that “the braking mechanism did not work and failed to slow down (Salven’s) rapid descent. … An employee of the (defendants), stationed at Pole #4, used his body and attempted to stop (Salven) but she crashed into the employee and into Pole #4.”
The suit adds that the defendants “acted in a careless and negligent manner” and created or maintained “dangerous conditions of their equipment,” which resulted in Salven’s injury.
The suit is also filed on behalf of Salven’s husband, claiming that he has suffered “loss of consortium” with his wife: “James Salven … has also suffered the loss of love, affection, solace, comfort, companionship, society and emotional support of (Lorraine Salven) that she would have rendered him except for the extent of her injuries.”
Tony DeLellis, a co-owner of KapohoKine Adventures, says that he believes his company was not responsible for Salven’s alleged injuries.
“The company that sells tickets is really limited in its input or ability on overseeing the staff and facility itself,” he said.
He claimed that it was Carlile Enterprises and The Umauma Experience who were in charge of overseeing the equipment and safety of passengers on the zip lines, and that his company broke ties with Umauma as a result of shoddy safety precautions and opted to build its own course at Honolii Mountain Outpost.
DeLellis claimed that after KapohoKine learned of rusty, fraying cables and other maintenance issues at The Umauma Experience, it demanded that some lines be shut down and later stopped selling tour tickets for the attraction altogether in December 2010.
“We noticed before anybody did anything up there,” he said. “We sent the owner a laundry list of things that needed to be addressed, since there was no way we could do any of it ourselves, with the brakes and other stuff that was going on up there.”
However, Cleo Carlile, co-owner of The Umauma Experience, said Tuesday that DeLellis’ version of events is “not the truth.”
“They were the operators,” he said of KaphoKine. “They were leasing this property from me. I wasn’t even here on the island. I was with my wife who was in the hospital on Maui, and during that time I was not involved in this project at all. I built it and then they came in.”
Carlile said that during the time that KapohoKine operated tours at the Umauma course, other guests were injured in addition to Salven.
“These folks (KapohoKine) don’t have a good history … and other people got hurt without my knowledge,” he said. “I regret that these people (the Salvens) chose to include us (in the lawsuit), because it (the course) was totally in their (KapohoKine’s) charge. I had nothing to do with it.”
Carlile added that he was the one who ended the relationship with KapohoKine after learning of the company’s mismanagement of the zip lines.
“On Dec. 1 of 2010, I shut the gates and told them they couldn’t come up any more because they weren’t maintaining the property,” he said.
Tribune-Herald staff writer John Burnett contributed.
Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.