By David Chipman on February 10, 2021.
In an opinion issued on Thursday, January 21, 2021, the Colorado Court of Appeals reversed a trial court order that had been entered against four Chipman Glasser clients. The firm’s clients allege that, between 2012 and 2014, they purchased homes around a private lake in reliance on false information. According to the homeowners, their real estate broker told them that the individual owners on the water and the HOA held sufficient rights to allow for recreational use of the lake. When the homeowners later learned, in 2017, that these representations were false, they sued the broker and his brokerage firm. Chipman Glasser filed the lawsuit, on behalf of the homeowners, alleging fraudulent misrepresentation, fraudulent concealment and violations of the Colorado Consumer Protection Act.
In response to these claims, the defendants moved the trial court for summary judgment. They argued, among other things, that the homeowners’ claims were time-barred because they should have been discovered before October 2015. In August 2019, the trial court dismissed the case on statute of limitations grounds based on a flawed interpretation of HOA meeting minutes from 2015. Chipman Glasser sought reversal from the Colorado Court of Appeals, arguing that the statute of limitations question was one of fact that should be decided at trial, not preemptively by the trial judge. The Court of Appeals agreed and reversed.
The case has been remanded back to the trial court. You can read the full Court of Appeals opinion here.