A Colorado federal judge was skeptical Wednesday that an attorney made a conscious decision when he crashed into and killed a cyclist, imperiling an attempt by the cyclist’s spouse to seek exemplary damages.
At a hearing on Wednesday, counsel for Mitchell Hoffman’s widow argued that the lawyer behind the wheel recounted such a detailed description of Hoffman that the collision must have been caused by more than just an inadvertent distraction.
Charles F. Cliggett made a decision to focus on Hoffman rather than the road, said Aaron J. Huckstep of Huckstep Law LLC, arguing that Hoffman’s spouse should be allowed to amend her complaint and put the issue before a jury.
Judge N. Reid Neureiter was not convinced. The complaint alleges no further details about how the fatality qualifies as the kind of “willful or wanton” conduct meriting exemplary damages, the judge said.
“How is that different from being negligent?” Judge Neureiter said, citing texting while driving as an example of a conscious distraction by a driver. “I’m trying to understand why that’s not negligent conduct as opposed to something that would justify an award of punitive damages.”