Harriman v. Cabela's Inc.

2016 COA 43, 371 P.3d 758, 2016 WL 1165425
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 24, 2016
DocketCourt of Appeals No. 14CA1671
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 2016 COA 43 (Harriman v. Cabela's Inc.) 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
Harriman v. Cabela's Inc., 2016 COA 43, 371 P.3d 758, 2016 WL 1165425 (Colo. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

Opinion by

JUDGE BERNARD

T1 Colorado case law holds that a litigant cannot file a C.R.C.P. 60 motion as a substitute for an appeal or to avoid C.R.C.P. 59(J). This appeal raises the following question: Should a C.R.C.P. 60(b)(1) motion, which alleged that a litigant did not timely [760]*760respond to a C.R.C.P. 12(b)(5) motion because of excusable neglect, be deemed denied . by operation of C.R.C.P. 59(J)? The facts of this case lead us to answer this question “no.” ,

. . T2 The plaintiff in this case, David Harri-man, was injured when he was a customer testing a hunting bow at an archery range in a store that was operated by the defendant, Cabela's, Inc, d/b/a Cabela's. He sued the store. The trial court granted the store's C.R.C.P. 12(b)(5) motion.

T3 The customer filed a. C.R.C.P. 60(b)(1) motion that asked the trial court to set aside its judgment. The court denied the motion because it concluded that the motion to set aside had been deemed denied by operation of C.R.C.P. 59(j). The customer appealed. We reverse, and we remand the case for additional proceedings. |

I. Background

A. Facts

T4 The customer's complaint contains the following factual allegations.

1 5 The customer wanted to buy a bow for hunting game, so he went to the store in August 2011. He decided that he would test one bow by firing arrows at targets -in the store's indoor archery range. He signed a lability waiver before he began the test. The waiver stated that (1) the store was not lable for any injuries that he might suffer from testing the bow; and (2) the customer assumed all responsibility for any such injuries. L. | 209

T6 The customer shot about nine arrows at targets without incident. Then the store's salesman recommended that "the length of the [bow's] draw be adjusted to better suit" the customer.

T7 The customer agreed. This process took about an hour. The customer then resumed the test, although it is unclear whether he did so at the indoor archery range or near a sales counter.

18 When the customer had trouble drawing the bow, the salesman urged him to pull harder. The customer did so. Either the bowstring or one of the bow's pulleys broke, and a part of the bow struck the customer's left forearm, cutting it deeply, This cut caused some permanent impairment of the customer's arm, and it left him with a large, pr ominent sear.

B. Procedural History

T 9 The customer filed this personal injury lawsuit against the store in April 2018. He asserted that the store had been negligent under several legal theories, and he asked for money damages. The store's answer denied that it was Hable for the customer's injury.

'[ 10 In July 2018, the store filed a motion to dismiss the customer's complaint, relying on C.R.C.P. 12b)(5). The customer did not file a timely response, In a written order, the trial court granted the motion to dismiss. The court decided that the waiver that the customer had signed insulated the store from liability, The trial court also thought that section 18-21-115, C.R,8.2015, of Colorado's Premises Liability Act barred the customer's lawsuit, Granting another request by the store, the court ordered the customer to pay the store's attorney fees and costs.

11 On the same day that the court granted the motion to dismiss,. the customer filed a document entitled "Motion to Set Aside Court's Order Dismissing this Action." In it, the customer asserted that the store had agreed that he could have more time to file a response to the C.R.C. P. 12(b)(5) motion. But, "due to an oversight," the customer had not asked the trial court for an extension. The motion to set aside did not cite any legal authority to support the customer's request.

T12 The store filed a response to the motion to set aside. The response stated that the motion to set aside (1) was apparentty based on C.R.C.P. 60(b); and (2) did not allege sufficient grounds that would authorize the trial court to grant the customer relief under C.R.C.P. 60(b).

T 18 In August 2018, even though the trial court had previously dismissed the customer's complaint and it had not ruled on the motion to set aside, the customer nonetheless filed a response to the store's C.R.C.P. 12(b)(5) motion to dismiss. It filed a "First Amended Complaint" a week later.

[761]*761{14 In October 2018, the store filed a motion that asked the trial court to determine the amount of attorney fees that the customer owed the store. (Recall that the court had ordered the customer to pay the store's attorney fees when it had granted the store's motion to dismiss the case.) The store contended that, under C.R.C.P. 59(J), the court should deem the motion to set aside denied because the court had not ruled on that motion within sixty-three days of when it was filed.

115 The customer promptly filed a response. He asserted that the motion to set aside was not subject to the time limits found in C.R.C.P. 59(J) becanse the motion was based on C.R.C.P. 60(b)(1).

[ 16 In November 2018, the customer did two things, . He filed a document entitled "Voluntary Status Report and Request for Ruling" with the trial court. And he filed an appeal in this court. In February 2014, a division of this court dismissed the customer's appeal with prejudice.

1.17 In August 2014, the trial court issued a written order, In it, the court concluded that, although the customer had asserted that he had filed the motion under C.R.C.P. 60(b)(1), the motion was subject to the time limits of C.R.C.P. 59(j). And, although the customer had filed the motion to set aside on the same day that the court granted the store's motion to dismiss, the court had not issued any orders concerning it until well after the sixty-three-day period established by C.R.C.P. 59(j). The court therefore decided that the motion to set aside was "deemed denied" by operation of C.R.C.P. 59(J).

II. The Motion to Set Aside

118 The customer contends that the trial court erred when it concluded that his motion to set aside had been deemed denied by operation of C.R.C.P. 59(J). We agree.

A. -Standard of Review

119 We generally review a trial court's decision to grant or to deny a C.R.C.P. 60(b)(1) motion for an abuse of discretion. See Goodman Assocs., LLC v. WP Mountain Props., LLC, 222 P.3d 310, 314 (Colo.2010). As is pertinent to this appeal, a court abuses its discretion when it rests its decision on a misunderstanding or a misapplication of the law. Genova v. Longs Peak Emergency Physicians, P.C., 72 P.3d 454, 458 (Colo.App.2008).

B. The Trial Qourtf‘s Analysis

«1 20 The trial court reasoned that the motion to set aside had been filed too late because "a motion pursuant to. C.R.C.P. 60(b)(1) cannot be used 'to civrenmvent the limitations of C.R.C.P..59()." 'The trial court based its analysis on the following sentences that appear in De Avila v. Estate of DeHerrera; 75 P.3d 1144, 1146 {Colo.App. 2008): "C.R.C.P.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2016 COA 43, 371 P.3d 758, 2016 WL 1165425, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harriman-v-cabelas-inc-coloctapp-2016.