Crichfield v. Grand Wailea Company7/31/2000
rds the Grand Wailea. And like I was saying[,] between them there is a fish pond that has a, grassy area where there is lots of ah bronze sculpturing and statuary[,] and it was at this point, walking across the grass lawn, looking at the statuary and the fish pond[,] that the accident occurred.
REITZEL: Okay, can you tell me how the accident happened?
GARY: Well, we had been, like I mentioned[,] we'd been looking at the statuary, walking along the grass. The grass up to this point had been perfectly dry. There, and it had been firm and stable, no problems, nothing to indicate that there was a wet spot in this particular area[,] and as we walked from one statute to the next statute and we were walking around the ah, the fish pond[,] um, I walked, I was not directly with her. I was a few feet away from her. But she bent down to take her shoes off cause she wanted to walk with her shoes off and took a step . . . , put her foot down[,] and the next thing I knew she was on the ground. Um, and . . . .
REITZEL: She was a few feet from you when this happened?
GARY: Yeah, she was a few feet away[,] so I was looking at her while it happened. Then I watched her bend over and take a shoe off and, and then she put her foot down and put some weight on that foot[,] and then[,] boom, the next thing I knew she was down. As she tells me, that area was just as slick as glass and or as ice, as slippery as, as glass.
REITZEL: When you got over to her, did it seem slippery to you?
GARY: Ummm, that's a good question, I was in such shock at the time. Um, I honestly couldn't answer that. I don't know, I was very, very concerned about her because she was in a lot of pain, instantly in a lot of pain. Um[,] I noticed as soon as she went down she had her arm out, she hit the ground and I knew she did something to the arm because she immediately cradled it to her chest and said, "It's broken, I know it's broken, please get some help." So, I don't remember the area being slick or anything about the footing of the area myself. I couldn't tell you.
(Some ellipsis points added and some in original). Gary did observe, however, that the area around Cheryl had become muddy after the police and emergency people arrived and traipsed around her.
On April 10, 1998, the Crichfields were interviewed by Chris Walby, a second representative of Ward North America. Cheryl explained further why she and her husband had decided to walk around the grounds of the Grand Wailea on September 6, 1997, as follows: That morning, Cheryl had become claustrophobic during a scuba diving lesson and could not continue the lesson. Gary, however, had completed the lesson and had gone scuba diving.
CHERYL: . . . When he had finished with that, he came up to the room because I was very upset that I had, that, that was the one thing I wanted to do up there[,] and I was very angry with myself for being claustrophobic and[,] ah, I had gone back up to the room[,] and he came back up to the room and got me and said let's go for a walk and you know, you can, you'll feel better after we go for a walk and talk.
WALBY: Now, did, so you said you guys took the pathway along the beach to go over to the Grand Wailea?
CHERYL: Uh huh.
WALBY: And, ah, did you have any specific plans over there? Is there, um, were you . . .
CHERYL: We wanted to, we, Gary said there was some beautiful statuary over there and they had a, a pond that, with some tropical fish in, that he wanted me to see and we just wanted to see what one of the other hotels looked like.
WALBY: . . . And did you do any shopping or anything o
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