9 results for 'judge:"Samour"'.
J. Samour finds the appeals court properly overturned the trial court's decision to grant summary judgment to the university on contract claims filed by the male student accused of rape. When read in conjunction with the entirety of the school's Office of Equal Opportunity procedures handbook, the requirement for a "thorough, impartial, and fair" investigation into allegations of sexual assault created a contractual relationship between the parties. Additionally, the male student's allegations the university failed to interview four of the five witnesses he presented and failed to seek out missing portions of the victim's medical examination file render his contract claim plausible and prevent judgment in favor of the university. Affirmed in part.
Court: Colorado Supreme Court, Judge: Samour, Filed On: May 6, 2024, Case #: 2024CO27, Categories: Education, Due Process, Contract
J. Samour finds the appeals court erroneously determined the "regular use vehicle" exclusion for uninsured motorist benefits in the classic car owner's policy was unenforceable. Although this court has previously found such benefits cannot be tied to use of a particular type of vehicle, the policy at issue in this case works in tandem with a standard policy that has its own uninsured motorist benefits and, therefore, allows for the exclusion. Reversed.
Court: Colorado Supreme Court, Judge: Samour, Filed On: March 25, 2024, Case #: 2024 CO 17, Categories: Insurance, Vehicle, Contract
J. Samour finds the appeals court erroneously determined the accrual date of the county's contract claim against the city of Denver regarding a noise modeling system installed near the airport was nearly 20 years after the installation of the system and at the time the county first realized any damages from the city's breach of a noise monitoring agreement. Colorado law unambiguously states a contract claim's accrual date is the date upon which a breach is or should have been discovered by the filing party, and because the county knew the city had installed a noise "modeling" system, rather than a noise monitoring system, immediately after its installation, it had three years from the installation date to file the current action, which is untimely and must be dismissed. Reversed.
Court: Colorado Supreme Court, Judge: Samour, Filed On: January 29, 2024, Case #: 2024CO5, Categories: Civil Procedure, Government, Contract
J. Samour finds Colorado's rule of criminal procedure delineating when a defendant must disclose discovery evidence related to "the nature of any defense" is not restricted to affirmative defenses and necessarily includes information related to an alternate suspect theory, although a defendant is not required to disclose all evidence of such a theory. Therefore, the trial court's overly broad order in this case for defendant to disclose all material information about an alternate suspect will be rescinded to allow for only the necessary evidence, including the suspect's name and address, if available, to be disclosed at least 35 days prior to trial to allow for the prosecution to conduct its own investigation. Reversed in part.
Court: Colorado Supreme Court, Judge: Samour, Filed On: January 16, 2024, Case #: 2024CO2, Categories: Criminal Procedure, Discovery
J. Samour finds the lower court properly granted the father's motion for an in-camera inspection of certain requested discovery documents. The log provided by the county contained little-to-no detail about the contents of the documents, which prevented the court from adequately analyzing its claim of attorney-client privilege. Affirmed.
Court: Colorado Supreme Court, Judge: Samour, Filed On: November 14, 2023, Case #: 2023CO57, Categories: Family Law, Discovery, Privilege
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J. Samour finds defendant's right to a jury trial was not violated, as the recidivism portion of Colorado's animal cruelty criminal statute is not an element of the offense required to be proven to the jury but is, in fact, a sentence enhancement to be proved to the trial court by a preponderance of the evidence. Although it elevates convictions from misdemeanors to felonies, the recidivism portion stands alone from the subsection of the statute that lists elements of animal cruelty and does not radically increase punishment for a defendant. Affirmed.
Court: Colorado Supreme Court, Judge: Samour, Filed On: October 3, 2023, Case #: 2023CO50, Categories: Criminal Procedure, Sentencing, Animal Cruelty
J. Samour finds a criminal defendant is not entitled to a jury trial on the recidivist portion of the sex offender registry statute, which is merely a sentence enhancement required to be proven to the trial court by a preponderance of the evidence. Affirmed.
Court: Colorado Supreme Court, Judge: Samour, Filed On: October 3, 2023, Case #: 2023CO51, Categories: Sentencing, Sex Offender
J. Samour finds that the district court should not have suppressed the results of a blood test that showed defendant was under the influence of THC when he crashed into a driver who was fixing a flat tire and severed his legs. The investigation into the collision was still underway and had not transformed into an arrest when he consented to a blood draw, so the blood sample should not be suppressed because it was not obtained during an arrest that was unsupported by probable cause. Reversed.
Court: Colorado Supreme Court, Judge: Samour, Filed On: June 26, 2023, Case #: 23SA69, Categories: Search, Dui
J. Samour finds that the trial court erred in automatically excluding defendant's hearsay statement because it was self-serving. Self-serving hearsay is subject to the regular exceptions to the bar on hearsay. Defendant's hearsay statement that he thought his alleged victim had given him permission to have sex with her was admissible under the excited utterance exception, as he made the statement when she startled him by accusing him of rape. And the statement had probative value since it directly undermines the state's evidence. Reversed.
Court: Colorado Supreme Court, Judge: Samour, Filed On: June 20, 2023, Case #: 21SC771, Categories: Evidence, Sex Offender