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Court of Appeals, State of Colorado COURT OF APPEALS, STATE OF COLORADO Colorado State Judicial Building 2 East 14th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80203 Appeal from the Denver County District Court Honorable Edward D. Bronfin, District Court Judge Civil Action No. 10CV8380 Plaintiffs-Appellants: OASIS LEGAL FINANCE GROUP, LLC; OASIS LEGAL FINANCE, LLC; OASIS LEGAL FINANCE OPERATING COMPANY, LLC; and PLAINTIFF FUNDING HOLDING, INC., d/b/a LAWCASH, v. Defendants-Appellees: JOHN W. SUTHERS, in his capacity as Attorney General of the State of Colorado; and LAURA E. UDIS, in her capacity as the Administrator, Uniform Consumer Credit Code. COURT USE ONLY Attorneys for Plaintiffs-Appellants: Case Number: 12CA1130 Names: Jason R. Dunn, #33011 Karl L. Schock, #38239 Address: Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP 410 Seventeenth Street, Suite 2200 Denver, Colorado 80202 Phone No.: (303) 223-1100 E-mail: jdunn @bhfs.com [email protected] APPELLANTS' OPENING BRIEF CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE I hereby certify that this brief complies with all requirements of C.A.R. 28 and C.A.R. 32, including all formatting requirements set forth in these rules. Specifically, the undersigned certifies that: The brief complies with C.A.R. 28(g). Choose one: It contains 6,672 words. The brief complies with C.A.R. 28(k). X For the party raising the issue: It contains under a separate heading (1) a concise statement of the applicable standard of appellate review with citation to authority; and (2) a citation to the precise location in the record, not to an entire document, where the issue was raised and ruled on. s/ Jason R. Dunn Jason R. Dunn TABLE OF CONTENTS Page STATEMENT OF THE ISSUE................................................................................1 STATEMENT OF THE CASE.................................................................................1 I. NATURE OF THE CASE....................................................................1 II. STATEMENT OF FACTS...................................................................3 A. Plaintiffs' business in Colorado and the proceedings below..........................................................................................3 B. Plaintiffs' purchase agreements..................................................6 SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT ................................................................................9 ARGUMENT ..........................................................................................................10 I. STANDARD OF REVIEW ...............................................................10 II. THE NONRECOURSE PURCHASE OF LITIGATION PROCEEDS IS NOT A "LOAN" ......................................................10 A. Under Cash Now, a loan exists only where the borrower has a contingent or absolute obligation to repay the loan amount......................................................................................12 B. Cash Now did not hold that simply "advancing money" creates debt or a loan................................................................15 C. Cash Now did not hold that a "loan" exists even where there is no obligation of repayment .........................................18 D. Plaintiffs' nonrecourse purchases do not create "contingent debt"......................................................................19 III. THE ADMINISTRATOR'S CASE LAW FROM NON-UCCC STATES IS INAPPOSITE.................................................................22 A. The Administrator's three primary cases .................................23 B. The more analogous non-UCCC cases demonstrate that "loan" requires an obligation to repay .....................................26 CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................29 -i- TABLE OF AUTHORITIES Page CASES Anglo-Dutch Petroleum Int'l, Inc. v. Haskell, 193 S.W.3d 87 (Tex. App. 2006)....................................................................... 29 Biggs v. Lyng, 823 F.2d 15 (2d Cir. 1987) ................................................................................ 22 Bostron v. Colorado Dept. of Pers., 860 P.2d 595 (Colo. App. 1993)........................................................................ 10 Britz v. Kinsvater, 351 P.2d 986 (Ariz. 1960) ................................................................................. 21 Brockenbrough v. C.I.R., 61 B.R. 685 (W.D. Va. 1986)............................................................................ 21 City & County of Denver v. Jones, 274 P. 924 (Colo. 1929)..................................................................................... 15 Cullen v. Bragg, 350 S.E.2d 798 (Ga. App. 1986) ....................................................................... 18 Dopp v. Yari, 927 F. Supp. 814 (D.N.J. 1996)......................................................................... 28 Echeverria v. Estate of Lindner, No. 50675, 2005 WL 1083704 (N.Y. Sup. March 29, 2005) .................................................................................. 25, 26 Fastenau v. Engel, 240 P.2d 1173 (Colo. 1952)............................................................................... 23 Fausone v. U.S. Claims, Inc., 915 So. 2d 626 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2005)......................................................... 28 Fowler Irrevocable Trust 1992-1 v. City of Boulder, 17 P.3d 797 (Colo. 2001)................................................................................... 10 In re Transcapital Fin. Corp., 433 B.R. 900 (Bankr. S.D. Fla. 2010) ............................................................... 28 Income Tax Buyers, Inc. v. Hamm, 91-CP-40-3193, 1992 WL 12092431 (S.C. Com. Pl. Jan. 14, 1992)................ 15 Kelly, Grossman & Flanagan, LLP v. Quick Cash, Inc., 950 N.Y.S.2d 723 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2012)............................................................ 26 -ii- TABLE OF AUTHORITIES Page Kraft v. Mason, 668 So. 2d 679 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1996)................................................... 27, 28 Lynx Strategies, LLC v. Ferreira, No. 51159, 2010 WL 2674144 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. July 6, 2010)............................ 26 MoneyForLawsuits V LP v. Rowe, 2012 WL 1068760 (E.D. Mich. Mar. 29, 2012)................................................ 29 Nyquist v. Nyquist, 841 P.2d 515 (Mont. 1992)................................................................................ 27 Odell v. Legal Bucks, LLC, 665 S.E.2d 767 (N.C. Ct. App. 2008).......................................................... 24, 25 Rancman v. Interim Settlement Funding Corp., 789 N.E.2d 217 (Ohio 2003) ............................................................................. 23 Salazar v. Cash Now, 12 P.3d 321, 326 (Colo. App. 2000)...................................................... 10, 14, 18 Salazar v. Cash Now., 31 P.3d 161 (Colo. 2001)............................................................................ passim STATUTES Colo. Rev. Stat. § 5-1-101 .........................................................................................2 Colo. Rev. Stat. § 5-1-301(25)...................................................................................1 Colo. Rev. Stat. § 5-1-306(25)(I)............................................................................ 11 M.C.A. § 31-1-101.................................................................................................. 27 Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 9-A, § 12-101............................................................................. 24 N.C. Gen. Stat. § 24-1.1 (2007) .............................................................................. 24 Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-3301 (2010) ........................................................................... 24 Ohio Rev. Code § 1346.55...................................................................................... 24 OTHER AUTHORITIES Anthony J. Sebok, A New York Decision That May Imperil Plaintiffs' Ability to Finance Their Lawsuits: Why It Should Be Repudiated, or Limited to Its Facts, FINDLAW, Apr. 18, 2005.............................................. 26 -iii- TABLE OF AUTHORITIES Page Susan Lorde Martin, Litigation Financing: Another Subprime Industry That Has A Place in the United States Market, 53 Vill. L. Rev. 83, 95 (2008) (discussing Echeverria)..................................................................... 26 Susan Lorde Martin, The Litigation Financing Industry: The Wild West of Finance Should Be Tamed Not Outlawed, 10 Fordham J. Corp. & Fin. L. 55 (2004)............................................................................ 13, 23 -iv- Appellants Oasis Legal Finance Group, LLC, Oasis Legal Finance, LLC, and Oasis Legal Financing Operating Company, LLC (collectively, "Oasis"), and Plaintiff Funding Holding, Inc., d/b/a LawCash ("LawCash") (together with Oasis, "Plaintiffs"), through their undersigned counsel, hereby submit their Opening Brief. STATEMENT OF THE ISSUE The district court below is the first court in the country to find that the nonrecourse purchase of litigation proceeds is a "loan" under the Uniform Consumer Credit Code. Did the court misinterpret the Colorado Supreme Court's decision in Salazar v. Cash Now to reach that conclusion? STATEMENT OF THE CASE I. NATURE OF THE CASE This case is an appeal of the Denver District Court's judgment interpreting the term "loan" in the Colorado Uniform Consumer Credit Code (the "UCCC"), Colo. Rev. Stat. § 5-1-301(25). Plaintiffs are national companies in the business of buying interests in the potential proceeds of a seller's pending litigation.
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