Court Opinion

ID: 9622327
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 06:15:38.117115+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:02:18.700613
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE KOURLIS
specially concurring:
I concur with the judgment of the Majority, but I write separately to clarify my understanding of the limits of a private right of action under the Colorado Consumer Protection Act (“CCPA” or “Act”).
In the companion case to this action, Hall v. Walter, 969 P.2d 224, 235 (Colo.1998), this court held that a plaintiff must establish five things in order to have standing to bring a private claim under the CCPA: (1) that the defendant engaged in an unfair or deceptive trade practice, (2) that the challenged practice occurred in the course of defendant’s business, vocation, or occupation; (3) that it significantly impacts the public as actual or potential consumers of the defendant’s goods, services, or property; (4) that the plaintiff suffered injury in fact to a legally protected interest; and (5) that the challenged practice caused the plaintiffs injury. See id. I dissented from the court’s decision in that case because the Majority’s test extended standing to plaintiffs who were not consumers. *224Indeed, the Majority’s decision allowed recovery of treble damages by plaintiffs who were not even targets of the deceptive trade practice.11
In this case, the court holds that Martinez cannot assert a private claim under the CCPA because she fails the third prong of the Majority’s test in Hall; that is, she fails to establish that Dr. Lewis’s alleged misrepresentations to State Farm significantly impacted the public as actual or potential consumers of the doctor’s services. See maj. op. at 222.
I would reach that same result for the reason that I articulated in Hall: a plaintiff cannot recover under the CCPA unless she is an actual or potential consumer of the defendant’s goods or services. Dr. Lewis was hired by State Farm to examine Martinez for purposes of evaluating her insurance claim. He was not Martinez’s treating physician, nor, as the court concludes today, did he owe her a duty of care. Indeed, Martinez was never exposed to any of Dr. Lewis’s alleged misrepresentations.
Thus, Martinez was not a consumer of Dr. Lewis’s services, and she therefore did not have standing to bring a private action under the CCPA. Accordingly, I concur with the judgment of the Majority.

. In Hall, the defendants misrepresented to prospective purchasers of real estate that the available lots were accessible by a road on the plaintiffs’ property. One of the defendants cut the locks on gates the plaintiffs had erected to protect access to their property. Moreover, the plaintiffs lost potential lessors of their land because the gates surrounding the property were constantly being cut open.
The trial court found that the plaintiffs suffered property damage as a result of the defendants’ trespass. Because that trespass was a consequence of the defendants' public misrepresentation, this court affirmed the holding that plaintiffs were entitled to treble damages under section 6-1-113 of the CCPA despite the fact that the plaintiffs were not consumers nor even exposed to the defendant's deceptive trade practice. See Hall, 969 P.2d at 238.