Vail Lawyer Warns Legal Wins Remain Fragile Pending Final Appeal

Aspen —The obvious take on this story is that it’s a legal victory. A client got their money. The system worked. But read that again. That’s the lie we tell ourselves when we win. The real story isn’t about the verdict. It’s about the fact that we had to file a second appeal just to fix a mistake the lower court made after we already won the first one.

Make no mistake: this is not a happy ending. It’s a cautionary tale about how fragile justice really is.

The phrase “It ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings” comes from Ralph Carpenter, a sports information director at Texas Tech in 1976. He wasn’t talking about baseball. He was talking about opera. Specifically, the idea that the final act — the big soprano singing her last aria — is the only moment when you can truly say the performance is done. Until that note hits, anything can happen.

Robbins, the author of this opinion piece for the Vail Daily, applies that same logic to law. In his final semester of law school, he interviewed for jobs in Southern California. One partner, whose name was Monte, told him something that stuck. “One of the great things about the law,” Monte said, “is that you get one, two, three, or even four or five swings at the bat. Unlike a surgeon if, oops - he lops off the wrong limb, in almost everything in law, you get another chance; or two or three, to make things right.”

That advice proved prophetic. Years later, Robbins took over a case after it had already gone to trial. His client, a corporate defendant, had won. But the court hadn’t awarded attorney fees or costs. Under specific contract terms and state statutes, those fees were owed. The amount was substantial. So Robbins filed a Rule 59 motion, asking the trial court to reconsider its decision on fees.

The court said no.

So they appealed to the Colorado Court of Appeals. The appellate court has three options: deny the appeal, reverse the judgment, or remand the case back to the trial court with instructions. In this instance, the COA chose to remand. The case went back down.

Months passed. Then the trial court issued new findings. And here’s where it gets absurd. The court awarded fees and costs to the opposing party. The side that lost the underlying lawsuit got paid. The side that won got nothing. Or worse, got charged.

Robbins’ team was certain this was an error. So they filed a second appeal. This time, they asked the COA to correct the record.

The short version? We’re still waiting. The fat lady hasn’t sung yet. And until she does, anyone claiming this case is closed is selling you a bill of goods. Worth watching, because if this is what happens when you win, imagine what happens when you lose.