LAW WEEK COLORADO
DENVER — An appeal of one of Colorado’s largest jury verdicts in recent memory will be argued Thursday in the Colorado Supreme Court.
Qwest is appealing a $40 million jury verdict former Xcel Energy lineman Andy Blood won in 2007 in a personal injury lawsuit against the company. Blood was rendered paraplegic three years earlier when a Qwest-owned utility pole collapsed while he was climbing it, dropping him 25 feet before landing on top of him.
Blood was represented at trial by Bill Keating of Fogel Keating Wagner Polidori Shafner.
The initial $40 million verdict included $18 million in punitive damages for Qwest’s failure to have a regular utility pole inspection program. The rotted wooden pole that broke under Blood had been standing since 1958 without being inspected.
Blood successfully moved to treble the punitive damages because Qwest continued to go without a pole inspection program after the suit was filed, running the risk of injuring others the same way he was. This bumped the total verdict to just under $90 million, interest included.
The Colorado Court of Appeals affirmed the verdict last year, though it bumped it back to $40 million, finding the trial court abused its discretion by not granting Qwest a post-trial hearing to present its side of the story before trebling the punitive damages. The court vacated punitive damages and called for a hearing to address the issue.
The state Supreme Court agreed to review whether the punitive damages against Qwest violate the due process clauses of the federal and Colorado constitutions as interpreted by Philip Morris USA v. Williams, 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The high court will also consider whether the punitive damages should have been upheld, applying due process principles as well as the state’s requirements for “willful and wanton conduct.”
Representing Qwest on the Supreme Court appeal are Gregory J. Kerwin, Robert C. Marshall and Frederick R. Yarger of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, and Thomas Alfrey and Robert Zavaglia, Jr. of Treece Alfrey Musat & Bosworth. Representing Blood and his wife are Bill Keating and Michael O’Brien Keating of Fogel Keating Wagner Polidori and Shafner, and Richard Westfall and Peter Krumholz of Hale Westfall. Representing Xcel Energy, which is on Blood’s side in the case, are John Lebsack and David Nowak of White & Steele.
The oral arguments will be held on the first floor of The Denver Post building, the temporary home of the state appellate courts until the opening of the Ralph L. Carr Justice Center, slated to open in 2013.
