O'Neil v. Wolpoff & Abramson, L.L.P.

210 P.3d 482, 2009 Colo. App. LEXIS 505, 2009 WL 863418
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 2, 2009
DocketNo. 08CA1461
StatusPublished

This text of 210 P.3d 482 (O'Neil v. Wolpoff & Abramson, L.L.P.) 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
O'Neil v. Wolpoff & Abramson, L.L.P., 210 P.3d 482, 2009 Colo. App. LEXIS 505, 2009 WL 863418 (Colo. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

Opinion by

Judge GRAHAM.

Plaintiff, William A. O'Neil, appeals the trial court's summary judgment for defen[483]*483dant, Wolpoff & Abramson, LLP., on the ground that prior federal court litigation precluded plaintiff's claims. We reverse and remand with directions.

Defendant is a multi-state law firm practicing primarily in the field of debt collection. In 2006, plaintiff filed a complaint against defendant in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, alleging that a series of debt collection telephone calls made to plaintiff's cell phone by agents of defendant violated the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), 15 U.S.C. § 1692, entitling him to monetary relief.

In May 2007, the parties settled the FDCPA claims. Approximately one week after entering into the settlement agreement, plaintiff moved for leave to amend his complaint to assert violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), 47 U.S.C. § 227.

When a dispute arose concerning compliance with the settlement terms, defendant moved the U.S. District Court to enforce the settlement agreement. Following an eviden-tiary hearing before a magistrate judge, the U.S. District Court granted defendant's motion to enforce the settlement agreement in October 2007. In its order granting defendant's motion, the U.S. District Court denied plaintiff's motion for leave to amend his complaint because the request was untimely and plaintiff failed to show "good cause to amend the Scheduling Order to allow him to assert new claims at this juncture." However, the court noted in its order that "[als to claims under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the settlement agreement explicitly does not resolve such claims and does not prevent Mr. O'Neil from asserting such claims in the future."

In December 2007, plaintiff filed his complaint in the instant state court case, asserting claims under the TCPA. Plaintiff and defendant filed cross-motions for summary judgment. Defendant moved for summary judgment on two grounds: (1) plaintiffs TCPA claims were barred by the doctrine of claim preclusion; and (2) plaintiffs claims were barred by the applicable statute of limitations. The trial court granted defendant's motion for summary judgment on the basis of claim preclusion, finding that plaintiffs TCPA claims arose from the same set of operative facts as the FDCPA claims and could have been asserted in the federal court litigation. The trial court did not consider defendant's argument that the TCPA claims were barred by the applicable statute of limitations.

This appeal followed.

I. Standard of Review

Under C.R.C.P. 56(c), summary judgment is appropriate when the pleadings and supporting documentation demonstrate that no genuine issue of material fact exists and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. W. Elk Ranch, LLC. v. United States, 65 P.3d 479, 481 (Colo.2002). We review a summary judgment de novo. Id.

The moving party has the initial burden to show that there is no genuine issue of material fact. Cont'l Air Lines, Inc. v. Keenan, 731 P.2d 708, 712 (Colo.1987). The nonmov-ing party is then required to establish that there is a material issue of fact. Id. at 713. The nonmoving party is entitled to the benefit of all favorable inferences reasonably drawn from the facts, and all doubts must be resolved against the moving party. Brodeur v. Am. Home Assurance Co., 169 P.3d 139, 146 (Colo.2007); Clementi v. Nationwide Mut. Fire Ins. Co., 16 P.3d 223, 225-26 (Colo.2001).

IL Claim Preclusion

Plaintiff argues that claim preclusion is not a bar to his claims. The basis for this argument is not entirely clear, but plaintiff appears to advance three main contentions: (1) the U.S. District Court order and the settlement agreement excluded the TCPA claims; (2) the claims asserted in the federal court litigation were "not identical" to the TCPA claims asserted in this case; and (8) the U.S. District Court lacked jurisdiction over the TCPA claims. We agree that the final judgment in the federal case, as reflected in the U.S. District Court's order construing the settlement agreement, did not encompass plaintiff's TCPA claims and thus did not pre[484]*484clude plaintiff from asserting them in state court.

Claim preclusion works to preclude relitigation of matters that have already been decided as well as matters that could have been raised in a prior proceeding but were not. Argus Real Estate, Inc. v. E-470 Pub. Highway Auth., 109 P.3d 604, 608 (Colo.2005). For a claim in a second judicial proceeding to be precluded by the prior proceeding, there must exist (1) finality of the first judgment, (2) identity of the subject matter, (8) identity of the claims for relief, and (4) identity or privity between the parties to the actions. Id.

Additionally, where the prior judgment was entered based on a settlement between the parties, our analysis must be guided by the terms of the settlement. The terms of that agreement provide the basis for and are incorporated into the judgment. See DiFrancesco v. Particle Interconnect Corp., 89 P.3d 1243, 1247 (Colo.App.2001) (holding that a settlement agreement is a contract to end judicial proceedings). Also, it is a longstanding rule that a settlement agreement can be governed by and found enforceable under common law contract principles. Yaekle v. Andrews, 195 P.3d 1101, 1107 (Colo.2008). Thus it follows that when claim preclusion is asserted on the basis of a settlement agreement, the seope of the preclusive effect of the settlement agreement should be determined according to the intent of the parties ascertained from the plain and unambiguous language of the settlement agreement. See Ford v. Roberts, 14 Colo. 291, 291, 23 P. 322, 322 (1890) (holding that dismissal of a suit by stipulation of the parties bars another action on the same demand, unless the right to sue again is reserved by the plaintiff); see also Norfolk Southern Corp. v. Chevron, U.S.A., Inc., 371 F.3d 1285, 1289 (11th Cir.2004) (concluding that "the seope of the preclusive effect [of a settlement agreement] should not be determined by the claims specified in the original complaint, but instead by the terms of the [slettlement [agreement, as interpreted according to traditional principles of contract law"); Satsky v. Paramount Commc'ns, Inc., 7 F.3d 1464, 1468 (10th Cir.1993) ("The basically contractual nature of consent judgments has led to general agreement that preclusive effects should be measured by the intent of the parties." (quoting 18 Charles A. Wright, Arthur R. Miller & Edward H. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure § 4448, at 884 (1st ed.1981) ) ).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
210 P.3d 482, 2009 Colo. App. LEXIS 505, 2009 WL 863418, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oneil-v-wolpoff-abramson-llp-coloctapp-2009.