Chapter 10 - § 10.2 • JURISDICTION OVER NON-RESIDENTS

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 10.2 • JURISDICTION OVER NON-RESIDENTS

It is undecided whether Colorado courts would recognize the conspiracy theory of personal jurisdiction for a civil conspiracy claim.³⁸ Under this theory, a plaintiff can premise personal jurisdiction over a nonresident on allegations that the nonresident was engaged in a conspiracy with a resident of Colorado.³⁹

Other jurisdictions do recognize that personal jurisdiction can exist over a co-conspirator. But for such jurisdiction to exist, "the plaintiff must offer more than 'bare allegations' that a conspiracy existed, and must allege facts that would support a prima facie showing of a conspiracy."⁴⁰ The Tenth Circuit observed that, even in jurisdictions recognizing this theory, "to sustain jurisdiction over an out-of-state co-conspirator these courts required something more than the presence of a co-conspirator within the forum state, such as substantial acts performed there in furtherance of the conspiracy and of which the out-of-state co-conspirator was or should have been aware."⁴¹

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Notes:

^[38] See Gognat v. Ellsworth, 224 P.3d 1039, 1053 (Colo. App. 2009).

^[39] See id. at 1053-54 (declining to adopt conspiracy jurisdiction theory). See also Giduck v. Niblett, 2014 COA 86 ("Assuming without deciding that a civil conspiracy could potentially establish personal jurisdiction in Colorado, . . . we conclude plaintiffs failed to allege acts by a Colorado resident co-conspirator taken in Colorado in furtherance of the conspiracy.").

^[40] Melea, Ltd. v. Jawer SA, 511 F.3d 1060, 1069 (10th Cir...