Court Opinion

ID: 9618533
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:13:30.85827+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:30.353048
License: Public Domain

VAN CISE, Judge,
dissenting:
This is a personal injury action in which plaintiffs are asking for compensatory and punitive damages. The issues of liability and compensatory damages have not been decided; however, defendants’ motion for summary judgment denying plaintiffs any entitlement to punitive damages has been granted. On November 30, 1979, the trial court entered a C.R.C.P. 54(b) order. Plaintiffs appeal the summary judgment.
I disagree with the majority in its decision on the merits. I regard Carlson v. McCoy, 193 Colo. 391, 566 P.2d 1073 (1977) as dispositive of the issue and, therefore, would hold that, to recover punitive damages, the personal injury action had to have been commenced within the year after the accident occurred.
However, in my view this court lacks jurisdiction to decide the case on its merits. As stated by the majority, “Plaintiffs’ claim for exemplary damages is dependent upon the underlying tort claim.” Therefore, since neither liability nor compensatory damages have been decided, the C.R.C.P. 54(b) order was improperly entered. The summary judgment was merely interlocuto*780ry and not a final appealable judgment, Ball Corp. v. Loran, Colo.App., 596 P.2d 412 (1979); see Trans Central Airlines v. Peter J. McBreen & Associates, Inc., 31 Colo.App. 71, 497 P.2d 1033 (1972), and the appeal should be dismissed.