28 May 2013

Supreme Court upholds school financing system despite inequities

Today, the Colorado Supreme Court reversed a lower court's finding that our state's public school financing system violates the constitutional requirement that all students receive a "thorough and uniform education."

In a scathing dissent, Chief Justice Bender wrote that "a thorough and uniform system of education must include the availability of qualified teachers, up-to-date textbooks, access to modern technology, and safe and healthy facilities in which to learn. The record, however, reveals an education system that is fundamentally broken. It is plagued by underfunding and marked by gross funding disparities among districts." Justice Hobbs also dissented and criticized a regressive system that pays less for students in poorer counties. Colorado is one of the wealthiest states in the nation but ranks 49th in per-pupil spending.

Click here to read the full opinion from State v. Lobato, 2013 CO 30.

22 May 2013

Insuring the risk of construction defects

This month, the Denver University Law Review published a new article on construction insurance by Jesse Witt and Marci Achenbach of The Witt Law Firm. Entitled "Insuring the Risk of Construction Defects in Colorado: The Tenth Circuit's Greystone Decision," the article reviews the evolution of liability insurance policies in the construction industry and examines how such policies have been interpreted in Colorado. The article explains how the insurance industry intended to provide builders with a means of insuring against the risk that their subcontractors would produce defective work, and it considers what construction defects can arise from an "occurrence" under standard policy language. It concludes with an analysis of the Tenth Circuit's decision in Greystone Construction, Inc. v. National Fire & Marine Insurance Co. and recent applications of this holding in state court.

Mr Witt and Ms Achenbach hope that their article will be prove to be a valuable resource for lawyers and other professionals who desire a better understanding of construction insurance. The article appeared in the Law Review's spring edition as part of its annual survey of significant decisions from the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

Click here to read the full text.