Tag Archive for: Colorado; pleadings

Careful what you ask for, warns Colorado Supreme Court

The Colorado Supreme Court warned in a recent case that a party who seeks to enforce a settlement agreement — even by merely seeking a declaratory judgment and without actually asserting a breach of the settlement agreement — may make itself liable, if it fails in its action, for attorney fees under the settlement agreement’s fee-shifting clause, especially where that party itself had stated its intent to seek such fees had it been successful.

Having themselves sought attorney fees under that provision, plaintiffs tacitly acknowledged that their claims sought to enforce the Settlement Agreement’s terms. Having done so, plaintiffs cannot now take the opposite position, merely because their lack of success at trial rendered them liable for defendant’s attorney fees under the Settlement Agreement

Source: Klun v. Klun, 442 P.3d 88 (Colo. 6/3/2019).

Denver federal court, one of the most pro-employee?

In what is likely to be a bombshell article amongst Colorado labor and employment attorneys, Bloomberg BNA reported today that its analysis of judicial statistics shows Denver’s federal court to be the most employee-plaintiff friendly of 11 federal courts it has analyzed. “The other courts Bloomberg Law has reviewed are: the Eastern District of New York, the Northern District of Alabama, the Northern District of Illinois, the Western District of Washington, the Middle District of Florida, the Western District of Wisconsin, the Northern District of Texas, the Central District of California, the Western District of Oklahoma, and the Northern District of Ohio.”

The District of Colorado grants employers’ motions for early dismissal—made right after a lawsuit is filed—just 36.7 percent of the time in job bias and similar cases. It dismisses such cases on the eve of trial—following a motion for summary judgment—at a 45.8 percent clip. That gives Denver workers something extra to be cheery about, in addition to the more than 200 beers crafted in the city each day and the playoff-contending Colorado Rockies.

Interested in how particular judges rank? Bloomberg BNA analyzed them individually and provides what it views as the relevant statistics for each, concluding,In all, eight of the 11 judges granted early motions to dismiss in employment cases less than 40 percent of the time.

Source: Workers Suing in Denver Federal Court Feeling Rocky Mountain High, P. Dorrian (9/21/18).

Individual liability possible for wage claims, in Colorado

In a 2003 decision, Leonard v. McMorris, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the Colorado Wage Claim Act does not itself create statutory liability for individuals who own or manage a company. But what about other theories?

In a recent decision, Paradine v. Goei, the Colorado Court of Appeals held that Leonard does not foreclose personal liability. Rather, it simply held that the Colorado Wage Claim Act itself cannot be a vehicle for imposing personal liability. The Colorado Court of Appeals held in this case that there are, at least, two other “well-established” theories for holding an individual liable for the acts of a company: “peircing the corporate veil, and when an officer acts on behalf of an undisclosed principal.” Oversimplifying these two principles, (1) the first allows a person to be held liable for the acts of his entity if, in running that entity, he has not obeyed corporate formalities and ignored the distinction between the entity and himself; (2) the latter allows a person to be held liable when he seems to have acted on his own behalf but later wishes to claim, unbeknownst to the plaintiff, that he was actually acting behind an entity.

In this case the Court of Appeals held the plaintiff had adequately pled a case to pierce the corporate veil and was, therefore, entitled to seek discovery in pursuit of his allegations. In particular the court noted the plaintiff alleged that the individual collected the company’s money to be used to pay wages, used the company’s revenues for “his own personal use” and “diverted corporate funds” to pay his own expenses, including his “apartment lease” and “vehicle payments,” treating the company as his “alter ego” while commingling bank accounts and credit cards.”

Paradine will no doubt stimulate the filing of individual liability claims in Colorado wage cases.

Source: Paradine v. Goei, case no. 16CA1909 (Colo.App. 4/19/18).