Egelhoff v. Taylor

2013 COA 137, 312 P.3d 270, 2013 Colo. App. LEXIS 2052, 2013 WL 5397706
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 15, 2013
DocketCourt of Appeals No. 12CA1963
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 2013 COA 137 (Egelhoff v. Taylor) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Egelhoff v. Taylor, 2013 COA 137, 312 P.3d 270, 2013 Colo. App. LEXIS 2052, 2013 WL 5397706 (Colo. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

Opinion by

JUDGE CASEBOLT

¶ 1 Defendant, Lesley Joe Taylor, appeals the judgment declaring his putative lien against the property of plaintiff, Martin Foster Egelhoff, invalid under section 38-35-204, C.R.S.2012, the "Spurious Liens and Documents" statute. We affirm.

I. Background

¶ 2 Plaintiff (Judge Egelhoff) is a district court judge sitting in the second judicial district of Colorado. In 2008, Taylor pleaded guilty to criminal charges before Judge Egel-hoff, who sentenced Taylor to incarceration.

¶ 3 After he was sentenced, Taylor began sending Judge Egelhoff various documents, claiming that Judge Egelhoff was indebted to him. These documents essentially stated that, if Judge Egelhoff did not specifically rebut the alleged debt, he would become personally liable to Taylor for five hundred million dollars.

¶ 4 Judge Egelhoff subsequently issued an order acknowledging that he had received the documents and struck the documents because they did not set forth legally cognizable grounds for relief. Thereafter, Taylor sent additional letters to Judge Egelhoff regarding the alleged debt. Eventually, Taylor filed a document purporting to be a lien with the Denver County Clerk and Recorder, asserting that Judge Egelhoff owed him five hundred million dollars and that this debt was secured by Judge Egelhoff 's real and personal property.

¶ 5 Judge Egelhoff then filed this action in the district court of the second judicial district, petitioning for an order to show cause why the lien should not be declared invalid pursuant to section 38-85-204 and C.R.C.P. 105.1. Because Judge Egelhoff sits in the second judicial district, a senior judge, Judge Kenneth M. Plotz, was assigned to handle this case. Judge Plotz issued an order directing Taylor to show cause and scheduled a hearing.

¶ 6 Before the hearing, Taylor was served with a copy of the petition and the order to show cause. The court subsequently held the hearing, which Taylor attended by telephone. Thereafter, the court issued an order declaring the lien documents invalid. The order stated that Taylor had "failed to offer evidence to meet his burden to show that the lien documents should not be declared invalid as required by $ 38-35-204, C.R.S."

¶ 7 Judge Egelhoff later moved to strike numerous documents that Taylor had filed with the court but had not served. The court granted the motion and struck the filings. This appeal followed.

II. Validity of the Lien

¶ 8 Taylor asserts that the court erred in concluding that his lien was spurious and, therefore, invalid. Specifically, he contends that he sent numerous documents in support of his lien to the court before the hearing, but that the court clerk did not file them until after the hearing. Therefore, according to Taylor, the court erroneously held that he failed to offer evidence to satisfy his burden of establishing the validity of the lien. We disagree.

A. Standard of Review

¶ 9 We review the court's determinations as a mixed question of fact and law. See Deutsche Bank Trust Co. Ams. v. Samora, 2013 COA 81, ¶ 37, - P.3d -, 2013 WL 2338183. We accept the court's findings of fact unless they are clearly erroneous and review de novo the court's application of the governing legal standard to the facts. Id. A [273]*273finding is clearly erroneous only if it is not supported by the record. See id.

B. Law

'I 10 Section 38-85-204(1), C.R.98.2012, provides that "[alny person whose real or personal property is affected by a recorded or filed lien or document that the person believes is a spurious lien or spurious document may petition the district court ... for an order to show cause why the lien or doeument should not be declared invalid."

111 If the court grants the petition and issues an order to show cause, the lien claimant is then required to appear before the court "to show cause why the lien or document should not be declared invalid ...." § 88-85-204(1)(a), C.R.S. 2012. At the hearing, the claimant may present evidence and argument in support of his contentions. See Westar Holdings P'ship v. Reece, 991 P.2d 328, 380-81 (Colo.App.1999). If, following the hearing, the court determines that the lien or document is spurious, "the court shall make findings of fact and enter an order and decree declaring the spurious lien or spurious document ... invalid [and] releasing the recorded or filed spurious lien or spurious document ...." § 88-85-204(2), C.R.8.2012.

112 A "spurious document" is "any document that is forged or groundless, contains a material misstatement or false claim, or is otherwise patently invalid." § 38-85-201(8), C.R.S. 2012. In other words, a document is spurious "if its proponent can offer no rational legal or factual support for its validity." Rossi v. Osage Highland Dev., LLC, 219 P.8d 319, 328 (Colo.App.2009) (citing Pierce v. Francis, 194 P.3d 505, 509 (Colo.App.2008); Westar Holdings P'ship, 991 P.2d at 330).

C. Application

118 First, Taylor, as "the appellant . is responsible for providing an adequate record to demonstrate [his] claims of error, and absent such a record, [an appellate court] must presume the evidence fully supports the trial court's ruling." Clements v. Davies, 217 P.3d 912, 916 (Colo.App.2009). Taylor has not provided a transcript of the hearing. Therefore, we presume that the court's ruling declaring the len invalid is supported by the record.

114 Second, even assuming that Taylor sent numerous supporting documents to the court that were not filed before the hearing, we nevertheless conclude that the court did not err in declaring the lien invalid.

1 15 As required under section 38-35-204, the court gave Taylor the opportunity to appear at the hearing and present evidence and argument concerning the validity of the lien documents. See Westar Holdings P'ship, 991 P.2d at 880-31. But neither the documents Taylor sent to the district court nor his arguments on appeal provide legal or factual support for the validity of the lien, because the only basis Taylor offers in support of the lien is that Judge Egelhoff owes him five hundred million dollars by virtue of a "Commercial Affidavit Process," which, as we conclude below, is not recognized by the law.

4 16 Taylor contends that the "Commercial Affidavit Process" permits an individual to send an affidavit to a purported debtor, claiming the recipient owes the sender a debt, and if the recipient does not specifically rebut the alleged debt, he is deemed to have agreed to the debt and its collection by any means. In other words, according to Taylor, a recipient's silence results in a "self-executing contract," binding the recipient to pay the amount of the alleged debt. Thus, Taylor argues that, because Judge Egelhoff did not respond to his affidavit, Judge Egelhoff agreed the five hundred million dollar debt was valid.

1 17 Colorado courts do not recognize this so-called - Commercial - Affidavit Process. Taylor has cited no statute or case authority, and we have found none, that in any way validates his assertions.

118 Further, to establish a contract, "the parties must agree upon all essential terms." Fed. Lumber Co. v.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2013 COA 137, 312 P.3d 270, 2013 Colo. App. LEXIS 2052, 2013 WL 5397706, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/egelhoff-v-taylor-coloctapp-2013.