Zeke Coffee, Inc. v. Pappas-Alstad Partnership

2015 COA 104, 370 P.3d 261, 2015 Colo. App. LEXIS 1142
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 30, 2015
DocketCourt of Appeals 14CA0255
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 2015 COA 104 (Zeke Coffee, Inc. v. Pappas-Alstad Partnership) 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
Zeke Coffee, Inc. v. Pappas-Alstad Partnership, 2015 COA 104, 370 P.3d 261, 2015 Colo. App. LEXIS 1142 (Colo. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

Opinion by

JUDGE DAILEY

T1 In this landlord-tenant dispute, defendant, Pappas-Alstad Partnership, appeals the district court's restitutionary award of $167,024 plus statutory interest to plaintiffs, Zeke Coffee, Inc., d/b/a Perk Hill Cafe, and Darren Spreeuw, president of Zeke Coffee (collectively, Zeke). We affirm and remand for an award of attorney fees.

I. Background

T2 The underlying facts of the case are fully set forth in Zeke Coffee, Inc. v. Pappas, Alstad Partnership, (Colo.App. Nos. 11CA0744 & 11CA2317, 2012 WL 14783340, Apr. 26, 2012) (not published pursuant to C.A.R. 85(f)) (Zeke I).

3 As pertinent here, in March 2004, Zeke leased, for five years, a retail space from Pappas-Alstad to use as a coffee shop. In September 2008, Zeke notified Pappas-Al-stad of its intent to exercise an option to extend the lease for an additional five-year term. Pappas-Alstad, however, said Zeke had breached a term of the lease and, after Zeke refused to cure the alleged breach, it notified Zeke that the lease had been terminated and converted into a month-to-month tenancy. In June 2009, Pappas-Alstad served a three-day demand for compliance or possession on Zeke, again alleging that Zeke had breached the lease. Zeke acted to cure the alleged breaches.

T4 Several months later, Zeke filed an action in the district court seeking a declaratory judgment that the lease remained in effect and that Pappas-Alstad had breached it. In response, Pappas-Alstad served Zeke with a notice to quit under the forcible entry and detainer statute, section 18-40-107, C.R.8.2014, and included in its amended answer a counterclaim seeking Zeke's eviction.

T5 The district court entered judgment in favor of Pappas-Alstad on the counterclaim and issued a writ of eviction restoring possession of the property to Pappas-Alstad. After Pappas-Alstad successfully opposed Zeke's requests for a stay of execution of judgment, Pappas-Alstad evicted Zeke from the premises.

T6 On appeal, a division of this court reversed and remanded the case with directions. Ree Zeke I. The division held, among other things, that

e the district court erroneously determined that Zeke's alleged breaches of the lease supported Pappas-Alstad's rejection of Zeke's exercise of the five-year option on the lease;
® Zeke had properly exercised the option, meaning that the lease had not been converted to a month-to-month tenancy and was "in full force and effect on the date of judgment"; and
eZeke was "entitled to an appropriate remedy for this situation."

Id. at 14, 21-22. The division remanded the case so the district court could determine an "appropriate remedy." Id. at 22.

T7 On remand, the parties disagreed as to the appropriate remedy. Zeke argued that, because it had been wrongfully evicted, it should be awarded actual, consequential, and special damages for the loss of its business, as well as possible punitive damages; Pap-pas-Alstad argued that because, in evicting Zeke, it was relying on a validly entered but ultimately erroneous court order at the time of the eviction, Zeke should receive only restitution equal to any benefit realized by Pap-pas-Alstad.

*265 T8 In a written order, the district court determined that, because Zeke had lost its right to possession of the retail space as a result of an erroneous court order, restitution was the appropriate remedy. After an evidentiary hearing. at which both parties presented expert testimony on the amount of restitution owed, the court awarded Zeke $167,024 (plus 8% statutory interest from the date of eviction), representing the value of (1) the rent Pappas-Alstad had received from its new tenant in the retail space; (2) the rent it would receive through the remainder of Zeke's lease term (e., through April 30, 2019), discounted at the rate yielded by United States Treasury Bills; and (8) the rent Pappas-Alstad would have received had the new tenant moved in and begun making payments immediately following the eviction,!

1 9 Pappas-Alstad appeals and Zeke conditionally cross-appeals. In its appeal, Pap-pas-Aistad contends that the court erroneously calculated the amount of restitution Zeke was due by (1) basing it on actual and potential rental income from the premides and (2) using the Treasury Bill rate to discount the amount of future rent proceeds to present value. In its cross-appeal, Zeke contends that if we conclude that the court erred in determining the amount awarded, then, but only then, should we remand the case with directions to the district court to apply damages for a "wrongful eviction" as the appropriate remedy, not restitution.

II. Pappas-Alstad's Appeal: Calculating Restitution

A. Actual and Potential Rental Income as Bases for the Award =

10 Pappas-Alstad first contends that the district court erred in using its actual and potential rental income from the premises as a measure of the appropriate restitution because this measure (1) did not "account for the full effect of the erroneous judgment" and the gain actually realized by Pappas, Alstad; (2) left Pappas-Alstad "worse off" than if the erroneous judgment had never occurred; (8) provided a corresponding windfall to Zeke; and (4) violates public policy. We are not persuaded.

111 Whether the district court has applied the correct legal standard in detér-mining the availability of a particular equitable remedy is reviewed de novo. See Redd Tron, Inc. v. Int’l Sales & Servs. Corp., 200 P.3d 1188, 1186 (Colo.App.2008). But the power to determine the components of such a remedy is within the court's discretion, Beren v. Beren, 2015 CO 29, 112, 849 P.3d 233.

112 Because Pappas-Alstad challenges the amount of restitution awarded rather than the propriety of restitution as the appropriate remedy, we review the district court's award for an abusé of discretion. Id: A court abuses its discretion only if its decision is manifestly arbitrary, unreason'able, or unfair, or is based on an erroneous view of the law. DeJean v. Gwosz, 2015 COA 74, 4 14,

1 13 Restitution is an equitable remedy which provides "a measure of damages which restores a party to his/her prior status. -It is available as a remedy when the injured party is due reimbursement for a benefit conferred upon another." Montoye v. Grease Monkey Holding Corp., 883 P.2d 486, 489: aff'd, 904 P.2d 468 (Colo.1995). » It 'is used to " 'deprive the defendant of benefits that in equity and good conscience he ought not to keep, even though he may have received those benefits honestly in the first instance, and even though the plaintiff may have suffered no demonstrable losses" Fleer Corp. v. Topps Chewing Gum, Inc, 539 A.2d 1060, 1063 (Del.1988) (quoting Mass Transit Admin. v. Granite Constr. Co., 57 Md.App 766 471 A.2d 1121, 1125 (1984)).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2015 COA 104, 370 P.3d 261, 2015 Colo. App. LEXIS 1142, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/zeke-coffee-inc-v-pappas-alstad-partnership-coloctapp-2015.