In re Villas at Highland Park Homeowners Ass'n v. Villas at Highland Park, LLC

Citations

• 2017 CO 53
• 394 P.3d 1144
• 2017 WL 2224369
• 2017 Colo. LEXIS 415

Syllabus

Issue Preclusion—Attorney Disqualification—Colo. RPC 1.9. In this original proceeding under C.A.R. 21, the Supreme Court reviewed a district court's order applying the doctrine of issue preclusion to deny defendants' motion to disqualify one of the plaintiff's attorneys under Colo. RPC 1.9 and to disqualify her law firm by imputation of the attorney's conflict under Colo. RPC 1.10. The disqualification inquiry under Colo. RPC 1.9(a) asks whether an attorney's prior representation and current representation are \substantially related.\ This inquiry under Colo. RPC 1.9(a) is specific to the particular matter for which disqualification is sought. The supreme court therefore concludes that a motion to disqualify under Colo. RPC 1.9(a) will rarely, if ever, raise an \identical\ issue to a disqualification motion in another case for purposes of issue preclusion. Here, the Court held that the trial court abused its discretion by relying on the doctrine of issue preclusion to deny the disqualification motion instead of conducting the requisite analysis under Colo. RPC 1.9(a). The Court therefore made the rule to show cause absolute, vacated the trial court's order, and remanded the case for the trial court to address the merits of the motion to disqualify under Colo. RPC 1.9(a).