Newbury, NH – A lawsuit filed six years ago by the operators of New Hampshire’s Mount Sunapee ski resort, alleging that the state fraudulently blocked its expansion, is heading to trial.
Mount Sunapee operates within a New Hampshire State Park on land leased from the state. Tim and Diane Mueller, who also operate nearby Okemo Mountain Resort in Vermont as well as Colorado’s Crested Butte, pay the state $150,000 a year, adjusted for inflation, plus three percent of its gross ski area revenue. Old growth forest, conservation easements and topography block expansion of the resort to the east, south and north.
The Muellers therefore sought to expand Mount Sunapee to the west, beyond their existing lease permit, on private land that they purchased to build planned condominiums, connected to the rest of the resort via a new ski lift and trail network dubbed the West Bowl. Despite what the Muellers claim were assurances from state employees, the final lease of park land included a 175-acre buffer zone that separated their leased land from the adjacent private land that they purchased, effectively blocking any expansion.
After those state officials who allegedly provided assurances were out of office, then-governor John Lynch, a Democrat who opposed the expansion along with several environmental groups, refused to amend the lease boundaries to clear the way for the Muellers.
The Muellers, who have operated Mount Sunapee since 1998, filed suit against the state in 2007. They contend that then-director of the state Department of Resources and Economic Development, Robb Thomson, deliberately misrepresented the lease terms at its inception in 1998 via an ambiguous map of the lease area, a charge that New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General Richard Head denies.
A Merrimack County Superior Court judge dismissed the Muellers’ claims via summary judgment, but last week the state Supreme Court partially overrode that decision, ruling unanimously that although Lynch wasn’t required to bring the matter to a vote by the five-member Executive Council, the allegations of misrepresentation are material issues of fact that should be decided at trial in Merrimack County Superior Court.
While the Muellers still operate Mount Sunapee, the lease was transferred in 2008 to CNL Lifestyle Properties, which has continued the litigation against the state.