Tampa, FL – A Tampa jury this week awarded a teen injured on a Florida church group ski trip to a North Carolina resort nearly $5 million in a lawsuit over injuries sustained in 2003.nThe unnamed boy, who was 14 at the time of the incident, traveled to Beech Mountain ski area with members of the Idlewild Baptist Church in Lutz, Fla., in Dec. 2003. According to testimony in the lawsuit, the Plaintiff’s mother was granted assurances that he would receive instruction on the slopes.

The jury found that the church group, however, did not require instruction prior to boarding the lift. The Plaintiff, who had no prior skiing experience, found himself on an advanced slope and crashed into another unidentified skier at an estimated 55 m.p.h.

As a result of the incident, the teen sustained vertebral fractures and lost nerve control in his left leg and left him with a drop foot. He now walks with a limp and the muscles of his left leg have atrophied.

The jury found the church 95 percent responsible for the incident, and the Plaintiff’s mother five percent liable. The jury ordered the church to pay $4.75 million to the Plaintiff, who is now 20 years old and resides outside of Florida.