Supreme Court of Colorado

The court answered a certified question by holding that an excess or umbrella insurer is not required to provide first-dollar indemnity or defense costs merely because a scheduled underlying insurer becomes insolvent.

The court held that Litterer’s post-injury, post-lawsuit online waiver was an enforceable release of his pending claims, rather than a pre-injury exculpatory agreement, and therefore affirmed summary judgment for the respondents.

The Colorado Supreme Court held that the trial court’s erroneous jury instruction on the sentence‑enhancer interrogatory did not constitute plain error because the issue was uncontested at trial, so the conviction stands and the Court of Appeals’ reversal is reversed.

The Colorado Supreme Court held that the district court's dismissal of the dependency and neglect petition was a final, appealable order and that subject‑matter jurisdiction issues are reviewed de novo, reversing the appellate division and remanding for further proceedings.

The Colorado Supreme Court affirmed the district court, holding that the 2023 Model Criminal Jury Instruction’s use of "firmly convinced" and "real possibility" is constitutional, does not lower the prosecution's burden of proof, and that neither the instruction nor ancillary courtroom statements shifted that burden…

The Colorado Supreme Court held that a party who previously waived its right to a jury trial may not revive that right by filing an amended pleading unless the amendment raises new triable issues, not merely new legal theories or clarifications.

The court affirmed Brown's convictions for leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and serious bodily injury, holding that those offenses remain strict-liability crimes requiring no culpable mental state.

The Colorado Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Appeals, holding that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by allowing a defaulting defendant to testify at a non‑defaulting co‑defendant's trial, by setting aside the default judgment under Rule 60(b), and by entering judgment in the defaulting defendant's…

The court held that the jury instructions were erroneous because they did not require a distinct finding beyond a reasonable doubt that the child abuse resulted in the girls’ deaths, but concluded that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt when the record was considered as a whole.

The court held that a timely motion by the People to reconsider a criminal dismissal tolls the forty-nine-day period for a prosecutorial appeal, even though the applicable appellate rule does not expressly address such motions.

The court reversed the court of appeals and held that the trial court properly excluded text messages describing prior consensual sexual BDSM activity because they were irrelevant to the charged nonsexual confinement and assaults.

The court held that trial courts have discretion to authorize prehearing discovery in condemnation proceedings under the Colorado Rules of Civil Procedure. It concluded that the lower court improperly treated the absence of required responsive pleadings as preventing a condemnation case from being deemed at issue.

The court held that the economic loss rule did not bar Antero's fraudulent-inducement claim because the parties' agreements were separate, stand-alone transactions and Veolia's material nondisclosures occurred before and induced execution of the design/build agreement.

The court held that execution of a Rule 41.1 order begins when a reasonable person in the suspect's position would not feel free to leave. Because detectives had seized Castro-Velasquez at his home to execute the order before questioning him, their interrogation exceeded the order's limited purpose and violated the…

The court made its order to show cause absolute and held that a defendant whose private attorney filed a Crim. P. 35(c) motion already had counsel under Crim. P. 35(c)(3)(V), even if that attorney later withdrew.

The court held that a proposed initiative seeking to amend a specific planned unit development agreement is administrative rather than legislative and therefore is not subject to Colorado's initiative power.

The court answered affirmatively that Colorado recognizes a narrow public-policy exception to at-will employment when an employee is terminated for lawfully exercising the right to self-defense in response to an unprovoked attack at work.

The court declined to overrule its rule governing when an uninsured-motorist insurer may participate in tort litigation between its insured and an uninsured motorist, clarifying that the heightened pleading requirement for fraud or mistake applies only when those defenses are asserted.

The court reverses the order suppressing evidence seized from a vehicle after a traffic stop. It concludes that the officers had an objectively reasonable basis to conduct a protective sweep based on the occupants’ movements, Baker’s recent POWPO arrest, and the high-crime location, and that finding a handgun then…

The court held that the statute's plain and unambiguous language required Lawrence to be transferred from Division of Youth Services custody to the county jail when he turned eighteen.

The court held that a parolee must exhaust the administrative appeal process before seeking judicial review of an initial parole-revocation decision through postconviction proceedings.

The court held that a purely quantitative reduction in parenting time remains a modification, regardless of its size, unless it eliminates parenting time altogether. A restriction occurs only when parenting time is reduced to zero or subjected to qualitative constraints on its manner, location, or environment, and…

The court held that a debt buyer's complaint did not comply with the Colorado Fair Debt Collection Practices Act because its non-affidavit attachments failed to establish that it owned the petitioner's specific debt.

The court held that an inoperative traffic signal facing one driver and a functioning green signal facing perpendicular traffic displayed conflicting directions and created a dangerous condition under the CGIA.

The court held that attempting to influence a public servant by using a third party to convey a lie constitutes acting "by means of deceit" under the governing statute. Because Hupke instructed his mother to mislead his parole officer and she conveyed the false information in an effort to secure release of his parole…

The court held that the trial court abused its discretion by denying a preliminary injunction requiring Children's Hospital Colorado to restore medically necessary gender-affirming care for transgender patients under eighteen.

The court held that any equal-protection error in entering the conviction for attempted patronizing a prostituted child was not plain because no clear, settled, on-point authority made the alleged error obvious.

The court dismissed the prosecution's interlocutory appeal because it lacked jurisdiction under the applicable statute and appellate rule. Those provisions authorize immediate prosecution appeals from specified pretrial suppression orders grounded in constitutional violations, but not from an order excluding evidence…

The court held that a postconviction court may order the prosecution to provide an indigent defendant with a free duplicate of missing pretrial discovery when the defendant identifies specific potentially meritorious postconviction claims and specific facts that the discovery may substantiate.

The court held that a water activity enterprise may exercise its parent water conservancy district’s eminent-domain authority when the taking relates to water activities. Because the challenged easements would support pipelines and related infrastructure for a water delivery and distribution project, the enterprise…

The court held that the statutory procedures governing a failure-to-cooperate defense apply only to defenses based on a policy's general cooperation clause, not to defenses based on specifically enumerated contractual conditions precedent.

The court held that Colorado’s sexually violent predator designation and its accompanying lifetime registration and community-notification requirements are not criminal punishment under the Eighth Amendment.

The court held that a car rental company offering supplemental insurance through a policy issued by a licensed insurer is neither a statutory insurer nor a common-law de facto insurer.

The court held that the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act required strict compliance with its 182-day notice deadline because the notice-entitled city neither made compliance impossible nor misled the claimant.

The Colorado Supreme Court affirmed the court of appeals’ judgment, holding that Lopez opened the door to the interviewer’s otherwise inadmissible testimony that she observed no indication of coaching.

The court held that the prosecution's second pretrial appeal was not an interlocutory appeal because it challenged an evidentiary exclusion, not the suppression of illegally obtained evidence.

The court held that an attorney satisfies C.R.C.P. 11(a) only by conducting a sufficient, objectively reasonable investigation supporting the complaint's allegations, including allegations pleaded on information and belief.

The court held that disputed or unliquidated amounts, including qualifying delay and disruption damages, may be included in a verified statement of claim under the Public Works Act.

The court held that the Children's Records Act provision protecting child-abuse reports and the names, addresses, and other identifying information contained in them is unambiguous and must be given its plain meaning.

The court held that the protections of Miranda and Edwards did not apply because Lulei was not in custody when he requested an attorney, and an attempted Miranda advisement did not itself create custody. The court therefore reversed the order suppressing Lulei's statements and remanded for further proceedings.