Chief Justice RICE , delivered the Opinion of the Court. 1 This case raises the following question: When may a nonresident parent company be haled into a Colorado court based on the activities of its resident subsidiary We hold that, to exercise personal jurisdiction over a nonresident parent company, a trial court shall perform the following analysis: First, the trial court shall determine whether it may pierce the corporate veil and impute the resident subsidiary's contacts to the...
CHIEF JUSTICE RICE delivered the Opinion of the Court. 1 This companion case to People v. Johnson , 2016 CO 69, 381 P.3d 316 , raises two questions. First, does a trial court have statutory authority to order a juvenile charged as an adult to undergo a state-administered mental health assessment for a reverse-transfer proceeding We answered that question in the negative in Johnson , but we do not answer that question here because it is hypothetical — the question is not based on the...
CHIEF JUSTICE RICE delivered the Opinion of the Court. 1 This case raises the following question: When may a nonresident parent company be haled into a Colorado court based on the activities of its resident subsidiary We hold that, to exercise personal jurisdiction over a nonresident parent company, a trial court shall perform the following analysis: First, the trial court shall determine whether it may pierce the corporate veil and impute the resident subsidiary's contacts to the non-...
Rule Made Absolute CHIEF JUSTICE RICE delivered the Opinion of the Court. 1 We issued a rule to show cause in this case to review the trial court's conclusion that defendant Ford Motor Company ("Ford") is subject to general personal jurisdiction in Colorado, despite the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Daimler A.G. v. Bauman , ___ U.S. ___, 134 S.Ct. 746 , 187 L.Ed.2d 624 (2014). We conclude that the record does not support a finding that Ford is "essentially at home" in...
JUSTICE EID delivered the Opinion of the Court. 1 Upon obtaining information that Steven Wayne Bleck was suicidal and possibly armed, officers with the Alamosa Police Department, including petitioner Jeffrey A. Martinez, entered Bleck's hotel room. After Bleck did not respond to the officers' command to show his hands and lie down on the floor, Martinez approached him, and, without holstering his weapon, attempted to subdue him. In the process, the firearm discharged, injuring Bleck. As...
JUSTICE BOATRIGHT delivered the Opinion of the Court. 1 Petitioner John Grayson Robinson brings this original proceeding pursuant to section 1-40-107(2), C.R.S. (2015), asking us to reverse the Ballot Title Board's ("Title Board" or "Board") decision to set the title and ballot title and submission clause for Initiative 2015-2016 #156 ("Initiative #156"). 1 Robinson contends that the title does not satisfy the clear title requirement and that the initiative violates the single subject...
JUSTICE M RQUEZ delivered the Opinion of the Court. 1 Following a two-year investigation into the Colorado foreclosure industry, the State brought a civil law enforcement action against the foreclosure law firm The Castle Law Group, LLC and its principals, Lawrence Castle and Caren Castle (collectively, "Castle"), as well as Castle's affiliated vendors, Absolute Posting & Processing Services, LLC, Ryan O'Connell, Kathleen Benton (collectively, "Absolute"), RE Records Research, LLC ("...
JUSTICE EID delivered the Opinion of the Court. 1 Respondent Jennifer Hansen was injured in a motor vehicle accident on December 30, 2007. Four months later, she presented an underinsured motorist ("UIM") claim to petitioner American Family Mutual Insurance Company ("American Family"), asserting coverage under an American Family auto insurance policy on her 1998 Ford Escort. As proof of insurance, Hansen offered lienholder statements issued to her by American Family's local agent that...
CHIEF JUSTICE RICE delivered the Opinion of the Court. 1 In this case we are asked to decide a straightforward question of statutory interpretation. Jeffrey Freeman was convicted of third degree assault on an at-risk adult. 18-3-204; 18-6.5-103(3)(c), C.R.S. (2015). Later, when he applied for a motor vehicle salesperson's license, the Colorado Motor Vehicle Dealer Board (the Board) denied his application pursuant to the mandatory disqualification statute, section 12-6-118(7)(a)(I),...
JUSTICE GABRIEL delivered the Opinion of the Court. 1 This case presents several novel issues arising from a dispute regarding an attorney's charging lien. After a contingent fee plaintiff's initial attorneys were discharged for cause and replaced by successor counsel, initial counsel asserted a lien against any settlement or judgment entered in the underlying action and in favor of the plaintiff. The underlying action was subsequently settled, and successor counsel filed a motion to...
JUSTICE EID delivered the Opinion of the Court. 1 In this case, we determine whether an avalanche that occurs within the bounds of a ski resort qualifies as an "inherent danger[] and risk[] of skiing" under the Ski Safety Act of 1979, 33-44-101 to -114, C.R.S. (2015) (the "SSA" or "Act"). If so, the statute would preclude skiers from bringing claims against ski area operators for injuries resulting from these kinds of avalanches. See 33-44-112, C.R.S. (2015). 2 Here,...
JUSTICE COATS delivered the Opinion of the Court. 1 Carson and two other electors of Mesa County Valley School District 51 made application to this court, pursuant to section 1-1-113(3), C.R.S. (2015), for review of the district court's order denying their requested relief concerning a school board election. A week before the scheduled election, Carson filed a verified petition, pursuant to section 1-1-113(1), naming as respondents the county clerk and recorder and the school board's...
CHIEF JUSTICE RICE delivered the Opinion of the Court. 1 In this case, Jesse Lipschuetz challenged the validity of a rooming and boarding permit that the City and County of Denver ("the City") 1 issued to Open Door Ministries ("Open Door"). Lipschuetz — who owns a property adjacent to Open Door's property — filed claims against the City and Open Door seeking revocation of the permit. Open Door filed cross-claims against the City, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to prevent the...
JUSTICE HOOD delivered the Opinion of the Court. 1 In this original proceeding, we review the Title Board's action setting the title and ballot title and submission clause for Proposed Initiative 2015-2016 #63 ("Initiative #63"). 1 Initiative #63 seeks to amend article II of the Colorado Constitution to establish a "right to a healthy environment." We conclude that Initiative #63 contains a single subject — the creation of a right to a healthy environment — and that the title of the...
JUSTICE HOOD delivered the Opinion of the Court. 1 In 2001, when he was twenty-eight, the respondent David Corson had a sexual relationship with the victim, K.B., a seventeen-year-old client of the residential treatment facility where Corson worked. In 2003, Corson pled guilty to a charge of sexual assault on a child, position of trust, and the prosecution agreed to recommend a probationary sentence and dismiss a separate charge. Approximately three years before Corson's guilty plea,...
JUSTICE EID delivered the Opinion of the Court. 1 Petitioner Branch Banking and Trust Company asks us to decide whether a deed of trust securing a promissory note is a negotiable instrument under Article 3 of Colorado's Uniform Commercial Code ("UCC"). The court of appeals held that deeds of trust are not negotiable instruments within the meaning of Article 3, and therefore the bank was not a holder in due course with respect to the deed at issue here. Fiscus v. Liberty Mortg. Corp.,...
JUSTICE GABRIEL delivered the Opinion of the Court. 1 Hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, is a process used to stimulate oil and gas production from an existing well. See Patrick H. Martin & Bruce M. Kramer, The Law of Oil and Gas 14-15 (9th ed.2011). Viscous fluid containing a proppant such as sand is injected into the well at high pressure, causing fractures that emanate from the well bore. Id. at 15. The pressure is then released, allowing the fluid to return to...
JUSTICE GABRIEL delivered the Opinion of the Court. 1 This case comes to us on review of the Larimer County District Court's order invalidating the city of Fort Collins's five-year moratorium on fracking and the storage of fracking waste within the city. As in City of Longmont v. Colorado Oil and Gas Association, 2016 CO 29, 369 P.3d 573 , which we also decide today and which invalidated the city of Longmont's bans on fracking and the storage and disposal of fracking waste, this case...
JUSTICE M RQUEZ delivered the Opinion of the Court. 1 Littleton firefighter Jeffrey J. Christ was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme ("GBM"), a type of brain cancer. After undergoing surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, he returned to work, but ultimately succumbed to the disease. He (and later his widow and child) sought workers' compensation benefits to cover his cancer treatment, asserting that his brain cancer qualified as a compensable occupational disease under the "...
JUSTICE BOATRIGHT delivered the Opinion of the Court. 1 Colorado's "severance tax" statute levies a tax on income derived from the sale of natural gas extracted from Colorado. 39-29-105(1)(a), C.R.S. (2015). In so doing, the statute permits taxpayers to deduct "any transportation, manufacturing, and processing costs" from revenue in valuing oil and gas resources for tax purposes. 39-29-102(3)(a), C.R.S. (2015). The question before us is whether this section permits a deduction for...
