A Rutland County Civil Court jury on Wednesday awarded a Pittsfield, Vt., woman $750,000 in damages after she was trapped midway to the top of the mountain for about five hours at Killington Resort in October 2011.

Nadine Price had gotten into a gondola at the resort around 3:15 p.m. on Oct. 1, 2011. The lift usually closes at 5 p.m., but on that date, it was closed just before 3:30 p.m. because of inclement weather.

Price was trapped in the gondola for hours.

In 2011, Killington First Constable Scott Bigelow told the Rutland Herald they had been called to the K-1 Lodge around 8:30 p.m. by a friend of Price’s who said she had not returned as planned from a hike she told him she was making to the summit.

Two town constables and Killington staff members had no success searching trails near the Snowdon Triple trail where Price had started her hike, and began shining lights into cars on K-1 Express Gondola and found Price in one of the cars not far from the summit. Price, an avid skier, was not physically injured.

However, lawyer William Meub, of the Rutland law firm Meub Gallivan and Larson, told the jury in Rutland civil court that Price had suffered post-traumatic stress disorder based on her ordeal.

On Wednesday, Meub reminded the jury they had heard Price talk about having frequent nightmares and waking up in a panic since being trapped in the gondola.

Meub asked the jury to consider an award of at least $500,000, but after deliberating for about 3½ hours, the jury made a unanimous decision to award Price $750,000.

“Justice was done, and the jury did a great job,” Meub said, noting his client was “too emotional” to speak on Wednesday evening.

The attorney who represented Killington, Andrew Maass of the Rutland law firm Ryan Smith & Carbine Ltd., declined to comment after the jury’s verdict.

During his closing argument, Maass said he knew what he was telling the jury was hard because it involved “some callousness,” but said despite the “unfortunate event,” Price did not need medical attention and Killington had reached out to Price.

Meub called many of Maass’ arguments “distractions from the key point.”

“This is a case about getting stuck in a gondola and the torture, and I really believe it’s torture, to be stuck up there for five hours. … One minute when nothing is going on is a long time. One minute when you believe you’re going to die is a long time,” he said.

Meub said Price was shivering and unable to feel her feet and hands while the gondola was immobile.

“When it turned dark, the despair. Beginning to be aware that you’re losing your consciousness, knowing that you have to stay awake, fighting to do that. Getting up and marching in place when you can’t even feel your feet, the fight to survive. Imagine if she hadn’t been able to scream out when she saw the headlights going by. Imagine if she had been lying there and hadn’t been able to fight to keep herself awake. We’d be here for a whole different kind of case,” he said in court.

In 2011, a spokeswoman for Killington told the Herald that an internal investigation found their procedures weren’t followed when the lift closed early.

“We did conclude that Nadine Price was not at fault and the lift closing procedure was not followed properly,” she said.

Price sued the resort, saying their negligence had caused her emotional distress. The jury agreed that Killington had been negligent but made no finding that the negligence had caused Price emotional distress.

Price’s lawsuit also alleged that Killington had interfered with a contract she had to work as a ski instructor and that the resort had defamed her character, but the jury found she hadn’t proved those claims.