LAW WEEK COLORADO
DENVER — Today saw the first batch of Colorado Supreme Court rulings in which newly appointed Justice Brian Boatright participated. He was sworn in as a justice in a private ceremony on Nov. 21, while his public investiture ceremony is tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. in the Old Supreme Court Chambers at the state capitol.
Boatright sided with the majority in five opinions. All but one opinion was unanimous.
In Vickery v. Evans, the court interpreted the statute that says exemplary damages in a lawsuit can be no higher than actual damages. In a 6-1 ruling, the court held that when calculating the upper limit for exemplary damages, the amount of actual damages should include prejudgment interest.
In Steward Software Co. v. Kopcho, the court unanimously held that federal copyright law only governs ownership of a copyright in software code, not ownership of a material embodiment of that code.
In People v. Coates, the court unanimously ruled that police officers lacked probable cause to search the trunk of a car after the driver was found to have a single Xanax tablet in his pocket at a Mesa County traffic stop.
In two unanimous water law opinions, LoPresti v. Brandenburg and cases involving Cherokee Metropolitan District, the court reversed decisions from Water Division No. 2.
There were 26 petitions for writ of certiorari, of which two were granted and the rest denied. The court agreed to hear Webb, et al. v. Black Hawk, to decide whether cities may ban bicycling on local streets when there is no suitable alternative bicycling route, among other issues.
The court also agreed to hear People v. LaRosa, which will determine whether the Court of Appeals as wrong to reverse a conviction based on the corpus delicti doctrine, which prevents convicting a defendant based solely on his uncorroborated confession.
The court denied a petition for rehearing in a $15 million verdict against Wal-Mart, though Boatright did not participate in that.
