## Facts

- Cablevision of Breckenridge, Inc. provided subscription cable television and FM radio service in the Breckenridge, Colorado area.
- Cablevision agreed with a representative of the Tannhauser Condominium Association to provide service to 33 condominium units in the Tannhauser I building and installed the equipment needed to deliver the signal to each unit.
- For more than two years, Cablevision billed for service and received payment.
- At Tannhauser’s request, Cablevision stopped billing all but three units, while the signal continued to reach all 33 units.
- Tannhauser installed its own equipment and used Cablevision’s signal to provide service to (1) the remaining 30 units in Tannhauser I and (2) a new 25-unit Tannhauser II building, without authorization or payment to Cablevision for those additional units.
- After discovering the unauthorized extension of the signal, Cablevision cut off service.
- Cablevision sued on multiple theories, including breach of contract, unjust enrichment/quantum meruit, and conversion.
- The case was tried to the district court on stipulated facts; the district court found conversion and awarded actual damages of $11,597.50 after a damages hearing.
- The court of appeals reversed, treating the case as only a contract dispute and finding the stipulation insufficient to establish a contract breach.

## Issues

1. Whether the district court, in a case tried on stipulated facts, was limited to deciding only an express or implied contract theory or could impose liability on other pleaded theories such as conversion.
2. Whether the stipulated facts supported the district court’s finding that Tannhauser converted Cablevision’s subscription service and supported the damages award.

## Decision

- The Colorado Supreme Court reversed the court of appeals and remanded with directions to reinstate the district court’s judgment for Cablevision.
- The district court was not restricted to a single contract theory; it could resolve the case under any theory within the pleadings and the issues framed by the parties.
- The stipulated facts supported liability for conversion because Tannhauser, without consent and without payment, appropriated Cablevision’s subscription signal and used it to serve additional units.
- The Supreme Court left intact the award of $11,597.50 in actual damages.

## Legal Principles

- A case tried on stipulated facts is governed by the pleadings and issues submitted; the trial court may apply any legally applicable theory properly raised, not just the theory emphasized on appeal.
- Conversion consists of a wrongful exercise of dominion or control over another’s property in denial of, or inconsistent with, the owner’s rights.
- A trial court may draw reasonable inferences from stipulated facts and characterize the conduct under the appropriate doctrine (including tort theories).
- An appellate court should not reframe stipulated-issue litigation so narrowly that it excludes alternative, pleaded bases of liability supported by the stipulated record.

## Conclusion

The court reinstated a damages judgment for Cablevision, holding that the trial court could decide the stipulated-facts case on conversion and that the association’s unauthorized diversion and redistribution of the subscription cable signal to additional units constituted conversion supported by the stipulated record.


Cablevision of Breckenridge, Inc. v. Tannhauser Condo. Ass'n, 649 P.2d 1093 (Colo. 1982)