$15 Million Verdict After Newlywed Dies of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning at Big Sky Lodge

Lew and Catharine Hudgens checked into Rainbow Ranch Lodge in Big Sky, Montana on January 11, 2021, two days after their wedding in Florida. Their cabin shared a wall with a boiler room, and holes in that wall allowed carbon monoxide from a neglected spa boiler to seep into their room. No working carbon monoxide detector had been installed as required by law.

For four days, family members who could not reach the couple called the lodge requesting wellness checks. Staff did not visit the room. On January 15, the lodge's general manager finally entered and found Lew Hudgens dead in the bed. Catharine was alive but severely disoriented from prolonged exposure. She sustained permanent brain damage, including two lesions on her brain, and could not return to her prior career.

The boiler had been serviced 42 days before the couple's arrival. Plaintiffs alleged that neither the lodge nor the plumbers who performed that work inspected or remediated the carbon monoxide hazard the boiler was producing. The lodge also allegedly failed to respond to the family's repeated calls for a welfare check during the days the couple lay incapacitated in the room.

Justin Stalpes of Beck, Amsden and Stalpes represented Catharine Hudgens at trial in Gallatin County District Court, co-counseling with Cunningham Bounds of Alabama. After a two-week trial, the jury returned a $15 million verdict on April 10, 2024. Rainbow Ranch was found responsible for 65 percent of the damages; other defendants had already settled confidentially for the remaining share.

The $15 million award was described by the plaintiff's legal team as more than doubling the previous largest verdict in Gallatin County history. No appellate reduction has been reported in public records as of the date of publication.