William S. Jackson

This case was a suit by a real estate broker against property owners for a $1,250 commission on the alleged sale of a business, fixtures, and lease known as the Sky Village Inn. The trial court dismissed the claim after finding the broker had not met his burden of proof, and the appellate court affirmed that dismissal. The court determined that the signed document was incomplete on its face because essential terms, including a new lease, remained to be negotiated and executed. It further held that the broker had not shown the proposed buyers were ready, willing, and able to perform, as evidenced by the stopped earnest money check, unresolved issues over fixture costs, a liquor license, and gambling provisions, and the ultimate failure to close the transaction.

propertybusiness & regulatory

This case involves a workers' compensation claim where the claimant suffered injuries to his mouth, neck, and vertebra after being struck by falling timbers and falling from a scaffold while employed at the Denver Stockyards Stadium. The Industrial Commission, affirming the referee, awarded compensation for temporary disability and 10% permanent partial disability as a working unit. On appeal, the claimant argued that the commission and trial court erred by ignoring undisputed expert testimony of a permanent psychoneurotic injury and that the evidence was undisputed. The court held that the psychoneurotic injury claim was not raised below and thus was not properly before it, and that the medical evidence on disability was in fact conflicting rather than undisputed. The judgment affirming the commission's award was upheld.

labor & employmentprocedure

The case involved a personal injury lawsuit where plaintiff Fellin sued defendant Clark for damages after being struck by Clark's car while crossing a street; Clark was responding to a fire as a volunteer firefighter. The trial court entered a judgment for Fellin based on negligence claims, including Clark's failure to have required purple lights on his vehicle. The Supreme Court reversed the judgment, holding that the relevant statute allowed emergency vehicles to use either audible signals or purple lights (or both) to qualify for privileges like exceeding speed limits, and that the trial court's instructions failed to properly convey this to the jury, making it impossible to determine the basis of the verdict.

torts & liabilityprocedure

This case concerned whether Aquilla Cole, convicted of voluntary manslaughter for killing his wife, could inherit the proceeds of her life insurance policies as her sole heir under Colorado's statute of descent and distribution. The trial court ruled that Cole could inherit, rejecting the administrator's attempt to introduce his guilty plea and holding that the conviction did not bar inheritance. The Colorado Supreme Court affirmed, reasoning that the 1923 statute disqualifies only those convicted of first- or second-degree murder and does not extend to manslaughter, that the legislature had preempted the field so common-law bars on profiting from wrongdoing do not apply, and that Cole was claiming as an heir rather than as a policy beneficiary. The court also upheld the exclusion of the guilty plea as not dispositive under the statute.

criminal lawpropertyfamily law

This case involved a suit by Jacob Lesser to rescind a warranty deed conveying his home to his son Henry, executed in 1949 while Jacob was elderly, partially blind, and recovering from illness; Henry died about 14 months later, and his widow Ida became the defendant. The trial court granted rescission in Jacob's favor, but the appellate court reversed that judgment. The court held that Jacob bore the burden of proving grounds for rescission by evidence approaching certainty or overwhelming preponderance, and his proof fell short, as it raised only a possible presumption of fiduciary relationship that was rebutted by evidence of Henry's ongoing assistance and the absence of clear undue influence, fraud, or duress. The opinion noted that a parent's natural preference for the child who provided care does not constitute the type of improper influence required to invalidate a deed, and Jacob made no effort to rescind during Henry's lifetime.

propertyfamily lawprocedure

The case involves the City and County of Denver seeking a declaratory judgment to issue $4,000,000 in off-street parking bonds after the city treasurer and auditor refused approval. Following an earlier ruling invalidating aspects of a prior ordinance, the city enacted a new ordinance providing for revenue bonds payable from parking facility revenues, with additional security from on-street meter revenues, and public sale without a mortgage to a private trustee. The court decided in favor of Denver, holding that the new ordinance complied with legal requirements, the optional mortgage provision could be omitted without invalidating the voter approval, and questions about the use of meter revenues went to policy rather than validity.

business & regulatorytaxes